Eli Lilly Executive was behind drug maker's strategy to discredit Scientology's

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SSRI-Research@

Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:08:17 -0400

Subject:[sSRI-Research] Eli Lilly Executive was behind drug maker's

strategy to discredit Scientology's campaign against Prozac

 

[-- along with everything else with Lilly's name on it, this is

disgraceful...]

 

 

Prozac defined Daniels' years at Lilly

Executive was behind drug maker's strategy to discredit

Scientology's campaign against drug.

 

By Michele McNeil

michele.mcneil

 

October 24, 2004

http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/188894-1270-P.html

 

Mitch Daniels came to Eli Lilly and Co. in 1990 just as a public

relations crisis threatened the company's blockbuster drug, Prozac.

 

He became the mastermind behind Lilly's campaign to discredit

the Church of Scientology, which claimed the antidepressant drug drove

people to violence.

 

Lilly bought and distributed 700,000 copies of a Wall Street

Journal article critical of the religious sect. The company made sure

prosecutors had access to pro-Prozac experts. And Lilly paid the legal

bills of doctors sued over Prozac -- a practice now deemed unethical

by the American Medical Association.

 

Prozac defined much of Daniels' decade-long tenure at Lilly. He

started as the vice president of corporate affairs and rose to senior

vice president of corporate strategy and policy, reporting to the

company's chairman and chief executive officer.

 

" Mitch came along at exactly the right time for Lilly, " said

former Lilly spokesman Ed West, who retired last year.

 

Before it was all over, the Scientologists would sue Daniels

unsuccessfully for libel. And Daniels would defend the company for

what some said was an unethical courtroom settlement that was secret

even to the judge in a Prozac trial.

 

In 1991, to the Chicago Tribune, he described the

Scientologists' campaign this way: " Take the nastiest negative

campaign in politics you have ever seen and cube it. "

 

But Prozac survived.

 

The drug was a success, in part, because Daniels and Lilly

controlled the media strategy against the Scientologists, even

coaching executives on what to say to the media.

 

In a 1991 memo to a Lilly doctor who was preparing for a

television interview, Daniels told Dr. W. L. Thompson Jr. to " seek to

control " the interview, while also appearing as a caring physician.

" Words like 'tragic,' 'heartrending,' 'vulnerable,' will be useful, "

Daniels wrote.

 

Words like " mean, ruthless and uncaring " are what Houston

attorney Andy Vickery uses to describe Daniels.

 

" It was a highly successful PR strategy, " said Vickery, who has

been involved in more than a dozen Prozac lawsuits. " But it was also

dangerous " for some.

 

Just this month, the Food and Drug Administration ordered drug

companies to put strong warnings on antidepressants -- including

Prozac -- that their use can cause suicidal tendencies in children and

teens.

 

At its peak in 2001, Prozac made Lilly $2.6 billion a year, or

one-fourth of Lilly's total sales. That's why the 2001 loss of patent

protection required four years of planning.

 

Enter Daniels again, who led more than a dozen top managers in

strategy planning for when Prozac went generic. After all, no

pharmaceutical company had ever lost patent protection on its flagship

drug and survived without being bought or merging.

 

" If Lilly had lost Prozac, Indiana would have lost Lilly, "

Daniels said last week.

 

Upon leaving Lilly to become President Bush's budget director,

Daniels reported earning a salary of $488,040 in 2000 and nearly $1.2

million in bonuses.

 

Daniels' record wasn't always successful at Lilly.

 

In 1995, while in charge of marketing, he apologized in a letter

to The Washington Post for two Lilly sales staff members who went to a

high school and passed out Prozac pens, pads and brochures as part of

a depression-awareness day. Some upset parents deemed this a sales pitch.

 

Less measurable is the effect Daniels had on Lilly's corporate

culture.

 

" He really got us as a company to open up. Lilly used to be

really publicity shy. We have really changed that, " said Lilly

Chairman and CEO Sidney Taurel.

 

In his first few years at Lilly, Daniels worked not on the 12th

floor with the other executives but on the second floor with his

communications staff.

 

He gave out the Zero Hero award -- a metal washer attached to a

string to reward those who cut costs.

 

He had " No Parking " signs outside of conference rooms to

emphasize that Lilly employees needed life outside work.

 

And he became famous for Thanksgiving Day voice-mail messages in

which he impersonated Tom Bodett of the Motel 6 commercials and made

fun of the goings-on at Lilly headquarters.

 

Daniels said, " It was the first time people at Lilly started

laughing at themselves. "

 

Call Star reporter Michele McNeil at (317) 444-2771.