Posted by Phil on January 10, 2003, at 22:22:33
Ex-Lilly Workers Claim Corporate Backing
MIAMI, Dec 11, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Three fired Eli Lilly & Co. employees filed a defamation lawsuit against the drug maker Wednesday, claiming they lost their jobs to cover up a management push to revive Prozac sales through unsolicited mailings.
Lilly disciplined eight workers, including the three fired employees, in July after investigating unsolicited mailings of the antidepressant drug to people in South Florida. One of the recipients of the mailings was a 16-year old boy who had never taken Prozac before.
Lilly has apologized for the mailings but said it did not sponsor the program. Calls to Lilly and senior employees listed on the lawsuit were not returned.
The lawsuit, filed in Broward Circuit Court and seeking at least $15,000 in damages, claims the program had corporate support and was used at least three times before without complaint or publicity.
The mailings generated a huge controversy and are being investigated by Florida's Attorney General. Assistant Attorney General John Newton, who heads a state investigation of the mailings, had no comment Wednesday on the lawsuit. But he said subpoenas turned up evidence of "a corporate-wide, extraordinarily aggressive push" to switch users to weekly Prozac.
The mailings were intended to boost sales by getting existing Prozac users to switch from a daily pill that lost its patent last year to a weekly patented form, the lawsuit said.
The fired employees are "scapegoats" for the bad publicity generated by Lilly's distribution efforts in Broward and Palm Beach counties, said the workers' attorney, Mark Gilwit.
The suit claims the Indianapolis-based drug company encouraged and applauded the so-called conversion program during its development and rollout.
Lilly compliance officer Tom Kidd screened the plan, "approved it and then authorized another identical program," the suit said.
Tom Riga, a Lilly employee who helped develop the program with marketing expert Chris Cole, was promoted to an executive post in Indianapolis as a reward for his work, the suit claims.
Fired salesman Alex Burlakoff briefed new sales representatives on the program and received an award for his presentation at a seminar in Indianapolis, according to the suit. Gilwit contends the program also was discussed at regional meetings.
The workers suing their old employer are Burlakoff, another sales representative, Frank LaCorte, and former district sales manager Kelly Moore-Martin, who was Burlakoff's supervisor.
The suit named LaCorte's district manager, Roy Sewell, as a defendant with Lilly in a defamation conspiracy claim.
The lawsuit offered this outline of the program: Doctors wrote letters to patients suggesting a switch to weekly Prozac. Doctors sent prescriptions and Lilly coupons for a free one-month supply to pharmacies. Pharmacies then mailed the drug to patients along with the letter from their personal physician.
After an in-house review of the mailings, Lilly said it fired, demoted, warned or accepted resignations from three sales managers and five sales representatives without specifying the individual punishment.
One recipient has filed an invasion of privacy suit against Lilly, Walgreen, the drug store that sent the drug, and her doctors.
Lilly already is under Food and Drug Administration scrutiny after a competitor complained a Lilly osteoporosis drug was being marketed improperly as a breast cancer preventative.
Lilly lowered its fourth-quarter outlook in October due to sluggish Prozac sales.
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