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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Ind. Decisions - Still more on "Record-Setting Zyprexa Settlement

A reader has sent this note re the ILB entry posted earlier today:

The Star article calls it a whistleblower case. Doesn’t the whistleblower in a federal case normally get some percentage of the settlement? Do we know who that is?
Well, yes we do. The answer is in a press release put out by plaintiffs' attorney Stephen A. Sheller, headlined "Philadelphia Attorney Stephen Sheller's Whistleblower Clients Help Government Recover $1.4 Billion Record Settlement and Criminal Fine in Eli Lilly & Company Zyprexa(R) Marketing Case: Lead Attorney Filed Complaint in 2003 Representing Six Whistleblowers." Some quotes:
Lilly will pay more than $1.4 billion for its illegal off-label marketing of the antipsychotic drug, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced. Zyprexa is Lilly's top-selling drug with worldwide sales of nearly $40 billion since its approval in 1996.

In today's settlement, Lilly will pay $800 million in civil penalties and plead guilty to criminal charges, paying an additional $600 million fine. The six whistleblowers who brought the Complaint against the drug company will share in approximately 18 percent of the federal and qualifying states' recoveries, Sheller said.

Related complaints filed by other law firms in 2005, 2006 and 2007 were ultimately consolidated into Sheller's first-filed Complaint. * * *

The whistleblowers represented by Sheller, two with 27 or more years' service at Lilly, expressed concern through proper channels about Lilly's improper marketing practices. All six whistleblowers were eventually fired or forced to resign. One sales representative, who also is a pharmacist, contacted the company hotline regarding unethical sales practices but received no response, according to the Complaint. * * *

The settlement is detailed in a 37-page Settlement Agreement, as well as in a Corporate Integrity Agreement executed by Lilly and the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

United States of America ex rel Robert Rudolph, et al. v. Eli Lilly & Company, Civil Action No. 03-943 (E.D. Pa.)

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 15, 2009 12:06 PM
Posted to Courts in general