Eli Lilly Accused Of Influencing Sepsis Guidelines

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Eli Lilly Accused Of Influencing Sepsis Guidelines
Guidelines, which are supposed to be independent and scientific, have
been influenced by a pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly, say US government
doctors. They say that the company influenced treatment guidelines for
sepsis, a blood infection which is often fatal.

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: Medical News Today