Eli Lilly responds to New York Times Article on off-label drug use discussions

Eli Lilly has issued a response to a recent article published online by the New York Times regarding an email that discussed off-label drug use.

The article focused on an ongoing trial of the State of Alaska v Eli Lilly and Company and featured an attempted interpretation of an email written by current president and chief operating officer John C Lechleiter in 2003.

Eli Lilly claims the report mischaracterised the email while also minimising the perspective of the company on this topic, with the firm calling the article “very skewed and inaccurate”.

“At the time of the email referenced, Dr. Lechleiter was the company’s vice president of pharmaceutical products and corporate development,” the company’s response read.

“Importantly, he did not oversee or direct promotional or marketing activities.”

The firm added that at this time there existed no compound approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat children or adolescents with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and described Dr Lechleiter’s email as a “call to action” to give a high priority to new clinical trials.

In November 2005, a report from Datamonitor claimed that regulatory changes could inhibit indication expansion of drugs, reducing the ability of firms to file for new indications in the EU.