The Check is in the Mail- Lilly-Zyprexa settlement payments

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[sSRI-Research] " The Check is in the Mail " - Lilly-Zyprexa

settlement payments

 

 

 

 

 

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

http://www.ahrp.org <http://www.ahrp.org/>

 

FYI

 

Indy Star reports that 8, 362 consumers of Lilly's top-selling drug

that produces diabetes--among other life-threatening effects--can

expect between $5,000 to " well over $100,000 a person " depending upon

the harm suffered.

 

Judge Jack Weinstein who presided over this massive case, capped

legal fees to attorenys at 35%--which is more than $200 million.

 

The settlement covered about 75 percent of the known Zyprexa claims

against Lilly. But hundreds more have flooded into federal and state

courts.

 

Lilly has set aside another $300 million to cover potential liability

from the unsettled cases, which it has said it will fight in court.

 

The first trial from the unsettled claims could happen next year.

Lilly employees are being deposed by trial lawyers, and the company

has turned over more than 10 million pages of documents sought by

plaintiffs' attorneys, Woodin said.

 

Eli Lilly 's $700 million settlement confirms confirms that Zyprexa,

its best selling drug, induces diabetes--an irreversible debilitating

disease.

 

The real question is:

 

Why is a drug that produces a life-shortening disease allowed to be

advertised and widely marketed?

 

Why is its use not restricted for proven benefit in life-threatening

conditions?

 

Or, is U.S. heathcare policy to promote increased sales for Eli

Lilly's

diabetes treatment products?

 

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

212-595-8974

veracare <veracare

 

 

 

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

Date=20060810 & Category=BUSINES

S & ArtNo=608100379 & SectionCat= & Template=printart

 

August 10, 2006

 

Zyprexa users await settlement payments

 

8,362 to receive checks related to side effects

 

By Jeff Swiatek

jeff.swiatek

August 10, 2006

 

More than 8,000 users of Eli Lilly and Co.'s top-selling drug should

find out this month how much their pain and suffering is worth.

 

Notices of injury payouts to Zyprexa users, in Lilly's largest-ever

liability settlement, will be mailed as early as this week to those

who hoped to enjoy the pharmaceutical benefits of the antipsychotic

drug but ended up with diabetic side effects.

 

The long-awaited award notices will be followed within weeks or

months by checks from a $700 million fund Lilly has set up to settle

claims from 8,362 people. Many are vulnerable patients with

schizophrenia and manic depression, the two main conditions Zyprexa

treats.

 

The payouts, ranging from a minimum fixed amount of $5,000 to well

over $100,000 a person, amount to a windfall for patients, most of

whom are poor enough to qualify for federal Medicaid assistance.

 

" The awards are significant, " said Chris Seeger, a New York attorney

who serves on a steering committee that represents plaintiffs. Payouts

of more than $100,000 will be common, he said, with fewer than 1,000

people getting the $5,000 base award for those who suffered the least

harm from the drug.

 

" People are anxious to get paid, " said Seeger, who helped hammer out

the agreement with Lilly in 2005. " They're very anxious to receive

their compensation. "

 

Deborah F. Wagers of Shelby County, who is part of the settlement,

said she hopes to collect on a claim of $112,500. She said she was

prescribed Zyprexa for depression from about 2001 to 2003, and she

blames the drug for causing her to become diabetic. She said she

injects herself with insulin five times a day now and has had

difficulty finding a job. Unemployed, she previously worked as a gas

station cashier.

 

" I think they should be paying it out, " she said of Lilly's mass

settlement. " I'm the one who has to suffer. " Wagers said she hopes to

use her check to pay more than $10,000 in medical bills.

 

The settlement by the Indianapolis drug maker was part of an effort

to head off a mass class- action lawsuit against it by trial lawyers

around the country who signed on thousands of clients alleging they

gained weight from Zyprexa or acquired blood-sugar problems. Many of

the lawsuits were consolidated in one federal court in New York, where

Judge Jack B. Weinstein has overseen the settlement.

 

At times, the elderly judge has chastised plaintiffs' attorneys for

being slow in getting payments to their clients who are in the

settlement. In June, Weinstein called the delay in processing claims

" intolerable " and demanded the work be speeded up, saying, " I want to

terminate this case. I have my 86th birthday Aug. 10. "

 

The lawyers did pick up their pace, reaching the agreed-upon

threshold of processing 90 percent of the filed claims by late July,

said Seeger. Lilly could have rejected the settlement if the attorneys

didn't get enough of their clients to take the money and drop their

legal cases.

 

With more than 8,000 claims now processed, " the deal is a final deal.

No backing out by either side, " Seeger said last week.

The only imminent holdup to paying out the money: A few state

governments, including Ohio, want a share of the settlement money to

reimburse them for Medicaid payments the states made for patients, to

cover diabetes-related expenses linked to their use of Zyprexa.

 

" A number of states are giving us a hard time over . . . lien

amounts, " Seeger said. " We'll be forced to hold back (payments) in

states where we can't reach agreement. "

 

Indiana hasn't objected to payments to its residents, so checks

likely won't be held up to Indiana residents, he said. Tom Beaury, an

informational technology worker from Lake Luzerne, N.Y., said

he is awaiting payment on a claim topping $200,000. He said he became

disabled partly because of diabetes-related symptoms linked to using

Zyprexa six years ago. Beaury, 35, said he will use his check, in

part, to pay off $30,000 in medical bills he has run up since his

Zyprexa-related health problems began.

 

He is not bitter toward Lilly.

 

" I don't know how to comment on Zyprexa. Was it a mistake? Was it

gross negligence? They had a mishap, and it affected me. But I think

they've done a lot of people good. "

 

Lilly spokesman Phil Belt said plaintiffs' attorneys are handling the

payouts. " We are pleased to hear that the process is moving forward, "

he said.

 

The settlement will produce a windfall for attorneys, too, although

Judge Weinstein has capped legal fees at 35 percent for most claims

paid. Still, that will amount to more than $200 million going to

attorneys.

 

The settlement covered about 75 percent of the known Zyprexa claims

against Lilly. But hundreds more have flooded into federal and state

courts.

 

" The money attracts more cases, " said Peter H. Woodin, a New York

attorney appointed by the court as a special master to handle claims.

 

Lilly has set aside another $300 million to cover potential liability

from the unsettled cases, which it has said it will fight in court.

The first trial from the unsettled claims could happen next year.

Lilly employees are being deposed by trial lawyers, and the company

has turned over more than 10 million pages of documents sought by

plaintiffs' attorneys, Woodin said.

 

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