INDIANAPOLIS, March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Eli Lilly and Company
(NYSE: LLY) today called the assertions in a New York Times online article
'flat out wrong.' The Times report in question focused on the State of
Alaska v. Eli Lilly and Company trial that is underway and attempted to
interpret a 2003 email from John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., currently Lilly's
president and chief operating officer. About this email and the Times
report, the company makes the following statement:
-- The Times article not only mischaracterized Dr. Lechleiter's email,
which the court deemed inadmissible, but significantly minimized
Lilly's perspective on this topic, resulting in a very skewed and
inaccurate article.
-- At the time of the email referenced (2003), Dr. Lechleiter was the
company's vice president of pharmaceutical products and corporate
development, overseeing the area of the company that is responsible for
developing new products and conducting late-stage clinical programs to
address the most pressing medical questions and also to ensure Lilly
made successful regulatory submissions. Importantly, he did not
oversee or direct promotional or marketing activities.
-- Additionally, in 2003, no atypical antipsychotic treatments were
approved by the FDA for children or adolescents suffering from
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; yet physicians, desperate to
improve their young patients' lives, were already prescribing these
medicines, albeit, with limited information on their safety, efficacy
or dosing considerations in these special patient populations. Dr.
Lechleiter had just returned from a
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