The drug industry continues to hire tens of thousands of doctors to serve as part-time marketing representatives, although medical schools and societies increasingly frown on the practice.
Ms. Vicente was hired in 2000 to join a 160-person "Long Term Care" sales team that focused on nursing homes "despite the lack of any clinical trials or F.D.A. approval for the use of Zyprexa in the elderly," the lawsuit states.
Ms. Vicente and other Lilly sales representatives distributed a Lilly study contending that elderly patients who were prescribed the drug "required fewer skilled nursing staff hours than patients prescribed other competing medications" and reduced "caregiver distress," the lawsuit states. Zyprexa often induces sleep in patients.
"In truth, this was Lilly's thinly-veiled marketing of Zyprexa as an effective chemical restraint for demanding, vulnerable and needy patients," the lawsuit states.
In October, Lilly agreed to pay $62 million to 32 states and the District of Columbia to settle consumer protection claims related to Zyprexa. It paid Alaska $15 million and agreed to pay $1.2 billion to 31,000 Zyprexa plaintiffs. Some private Zyprexa claims remain unresolved.
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