Zyprexa: Link to Suicide

In five pre-marketing clinical trials conducted by Eli Lilly involving 2,500 patients, 12 patients committed suicide, making Zyprexa the drug with the highest suicide rate of any other antipsychotic in clinical history, according to Dr. David Healy, a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Wales. Healy also claims that Lilly "suppressed data on suicidal acts on Zyprexa from these trials. The data are not available in the scientific literature, nor from FOI [Freedom of Information Act] requests to the FDA, nor from enquiries to the company." The number of suicidal acts reported has yet to be confirmed.

In a controlled trial published in JAMA, Zyprexa and haloperidol were compared in the treatment of people who have schizophrenia. Researchers concluded, "Olanzapine (Zyprexa) does not demonstrate advantages compared with haloperidol (in combination with prophylactic benztropine) in compliance, symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms, or overall quality of life, and its benefits in reducing akathisia [a movement disorder characterized by a feeling of needing to be in constant motion] and improving cognition must be balanced with the problems of weight gain and higher cost."

According to an article at Bloomberg.com (June 12, 2009), internal documents from Eli Lilly revealed the company's plan to make Zyprexa "the number one selling psychotropic in history." Lawsuits filed by insurers and pension funds, which are attempting to recover money spent on Zyprexa allege that Lilly overstated Zyprexa's effectiveness.

Lilly also reportedly had company officials write medical journal articles but put doctors' names on the articles, hired scientists to write favorable articles and complained to journal editors when publication of articles was delayed.

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