Eli Lilly Accused Of Influencing Sepsis Guidelines
You can read about this in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Naomi O'Grady, a doctor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said that Eli Lilly is trying to insinuate its drug into many aspects of patient care that industry really should not be involved in. Dr. O'Grady, and three other NIH doctors said that Eli Lilly's influence made it such that its drug, Xigris, was eventually included in the guidelines for sepsis treatment.
Eli Lilly says it does not believe the company played a role in the development of the content of the guidelines, beyond funding the campaign initiative.
The guidelines say that very sick patients should receive Xigris. Sepsis (blood poisoning) affects about three-quarters of a million people in the USA each year. About one third of all severe pepsis cases are fatal, over two thirds of all sepsis shock cases are fatal.
Xigris only just got approval from the FDA five years ago - as many people in the advisory committee voted against its approval as for it. Dr. Peter Q. Eichacker, one of the members who voted against approval, says the drug should not be a standard, given the questionable data surrounding it. Xigris can cause serious bleeding.
In 2002 Lilly employed a PR company to promote Xigris usage. The drug was not doing well at the time, and its blockbuster medication, Prozac, was nearing the end of its patent life. The company spent enormous amounts of money promoting the wider usage of Xigris.
Eli Lilly says the sepsis campaign was educational. The aim was to make sure only the right patients - those very seriously ill - received the drug.
20% of the 46 people who wrote the guidelines had received money from Lilly for previous research and giving talks.
"Surviving Sepsis - Practice Guidelines, Marketing Campaigns, and Eli Lilly"
Peter Q. Eichacker, M.D., Charles Natanson, M.D., and Robert L. Danner, M.D.
NEJMVolume 355:1640-1642 October 19, 2006 Number 16
Click here to see the beginning of the article online
Writer: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Start Sanatate
View drug information on Prozac Weekly; Xigris.
Copyright: Start Sanatate
Not to be reproduced without permission of Start Sanatate
Eli Lilly acuzat de Influenþarea Sepsis Orientãri - Eli Lilly Accused Of Influencing Sepsis Guidelines - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate