Florida’s attorney general has begun an investigation into Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, as a sampling scandal continues to unfold in Florida, where at least 300 people-including a 16-year-old boy-got unsolicited samples of Prozac in the mail.
A Florida woman filed suit against Prozac maker Lilly and others after getting a sample of Prozac Weekly, accompanied by a letter signed by the doctor treating her for depression (Promo XTRA, July 10). Several Prozac recipients have since joined the invasion-of-privacy suit; the AG’s investigation includes Deerfield, IL-based Walgreens Co., which mailed the drug; Holy Cross Hospital Inc.; and three doctors and one physician’s assistant at the Ft. Lauderdale practice treating the original plaintiff.
Lilly disciplined (fired, demoted, put on probation, or warned) three sales managers and five sales reps who apparently instigated the sampling effort. Lilly contends that fewer than 150 were mailed, but investigators confirmed at least 300 recipients, says attorney Gary Farmer, who represents the original plaintiff. The teenager got his sample through a different doctor’s office on July 2, after the story had come to light.
The suit filed in state court in Broward County charges Lilly, Walgreens, and the woman’s doctor with invasion of privacy and improper medical practice. Walgreens filled and mailed the prescriptions in exchange for reimbursement via product-sample coupons from Lilly. Walgreens apparently used the “Dear Patient” letter signed by a Holy Cross doctor (and allegedly drafted by a Lilly sales rep) as a prescription, because three plaintiffs have no prescriptions in their charts, says Farmer. “I think Lilly reps got at least one doctor in each practice to give the names and addresses to facilitate this mailing,” he says.
Lilly calls it “a very limited incident” only in south Florida. “Some activities of Lilly sales personnel…were inconsistent with Lilly policy,” says spokesperson Blair Austin. “It is inappropriate…for Lilly sales personnel to support programs in which medicine is mailed to patients without the patient’s request.” Walgreens says “patient privacy was not violated,” per spokesperson Carol Hively. “No patient information was provided to Lilly or to any physician’s office.” Walgreens verified the first prescription, but “we regret the drug was delivered in this manner.”
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