What I would do to repond to articles in NY Times
Dec/21/2006 11:30 Filed in: Pharma
Business
It seems that the New York Times is on a crusade against Lilly. Again, in today's Business section is another article on Zyprexa and the data that Lilly had collected in early clinical trials relating to weight gain in patients. Once again this is from internal correspondence released by a lawyer in Alaska is who currently is in litigation with Lilly over Zyprexa. It's time for Lilly to stop hiding their head in the sand and come up with an action plan to counteract all this negative publicity on a drug that helps millions of people.
Here is an action plan that I would put in place if I were in Lilly's shoes:
1. Invite the reporter who wrote these articles, along with his editor, to Indianapolis for a meeting. At this meeting I would address each "allegation" one-on-one with open honest responses. For example, Lilly might to point out that some people from the Zyprexa team were terminated for actions that Lilly felt "were not keeping in traditions with our compliance policy".
2. I would then invite the reporter to one of Lilly's compliance training programs which are held quarterly.
3. I would then ask the reporter to interview some family members of patients who are currently on Zyprexa so that they can asses the impact this medication has had on a patients quality of life.
4. Finally; I would let the reporter meet with current members of the Zyprexa team and interview them one on one if necessary.
Are these risky? Yes they might be but in this age of media spotlights and 24/7 information Lilly can't afford to hide behind statements like "no comment" and "we don't comment on pending litigation". That went out the door when the attorney in Alaska released this confidential information. Unless America's pharmaceutical companies take the offensive once in a while they are going to continue to get kicked around like an old shoe. Time for the industry to speak up and talk about all the positive things we do.
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