The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is examining whether Eli Lilly & Company provided it with accurate data about the side effects of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, a potent medicine that has been linked to weight gain and diabetes. The FDA has questions about a Lilly document from February 2000 in which the company found that patients taking Zyprexa in clinical trials were three and a half times as likely to develop high blood sugar as those who did not take the drug. That document was not submitted to the agency. But a few months later, Lilly provided data to the FDA that showed almost no difference in blood sugar between patients who took Zyprexa and those who did not. The FDA confirmed its inquiry in response to questions from The New York Times. The agency said it had not yet decided whether to take any action against Lilly.
Imagine that! A pharmaceutical company may have withheld information from the FDA! Read the New York Times article here.