Eli Lilly Doesn't Want Incriminating Documents Linked From A Wiki

from the you-do-understand-how-the-internet-works,-right? dept

In the latest case involving a big company trying to shut someone up (thereby only drawing that much more attention to it), Eli Lilly apparently was upset that someone had leaked documents suggesting that the pharmaceutical company had downplayed the side effects of its best selling drug, Zyprexa. The company has apparently gone on to pay out over a billion dollars in settlements concerning the drug, but one thing they apparently can’t stand is anyone linking to the incriminating documents. Some people got together and put together a wiki that linked to some of the leaked documents, and a court ordered that the links be taken off the wiki. The EFF is defending the still anonymous wiki posters, pointing out that this appears to be a First Amendment violation. The people who put together the wiki were not a part of the lawsuit, and simply were pointing to the documents — which should leave them outside the jurisdiction of the court. Of course, as has been pointed out over and over again, all this is really doing is getting additional publicity to the fact that these documents existed. So, it seems like any effort to get them completely banned has done the opposite of what Eli Lilly intended.


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Comments on “Eli Lilly Doesn't Want Incriminating Documents Linked From A Wiki”

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24 Comments
Wizard Prang (user link) says:

I'm guessing...

…that their billion-dollar settlement contained the words “without admitting liability” or something similar in it.

So we can’t have someone pointing out the smoking gun, can we?

They’re not “evil”, they’re just doing what they are mandated to do – whatever it takes to make a profit. I suspect that they feel that they have to be seen to be doing something… but the saddest thing about their effort to silence these folks is that it is doomed to backfire.

Brad Eleven (profile) says:

Re: I'm guessing...

Excellent points, but … “they’re just doing what they are mandated to do” ??

I’ll buy “expected to do,” but there is absolutely no such mandate.

One could argue that the shareholders grant the corporation their consent, via their election of its board of directors, even to the extent of demanding this sick brand of litigation. I think “mandate” is a little extreme, though, and just too politicky.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Nancy Reagan was Right!

Actually, with schizophrenia it’s a bloody bad idea, as it amplifies the symptoms, and with people that have a genetic disposition, it will actually work as a trigger for onset of the desease, which otherwise would have laid dormant a couple more years. The research into this is still lacking, the above is all from personal experience, witnessing some of my friends that had “strange tendencies and thoughts” previously, turn into total “nut cases” out of control. Also, mental health professionals see this all the time, hence their ingnorant (and unscientific) belief in Cannabis smoke being the cause of schizophrenia.

I stopped seeing “professional help”, when my last psycho doc told me “all his pot smoking patients have mental problems”, to which I replied “and what about those that you never see, who dont’ have problems?” His response “I don’t believe they exist”…WTF?!

I suffer(ed) from clinical depression, and my favourite medicine: home grown! The problem is the illegal market for one, and further the lack of research.

In my personal experience, there are weeds out there, that enabled me to function in a “normal” manner. They allow me to concentrate and lead an active life. This might sound strange to some of you have used this drug, but it all comes down to dosage. If you hit bong, and have cone after cone, of course the effect will reverse, but taken in a controlled manner, it can do miracles.

Having said this, there are also weeds out there, that actually seem to amplify the depression, in which case on better hit the bong until passed out.

This has actually been verified in research (google for it yourself and learn).

Cannabis is a great drug, and I’m convinced, because of it, I’m still alive. Cannabis gave me, what all those legal drugs promise but never delivered. I tried, as to see for myself. One doc prescribed me Zyprexa, and for the first time in my life, I had some seriously bad hallucination’s (little man standing on my shoulder, who wouldn’t shut up). Zoloft turned me into a fucking idiot. Sitting around staring into thin air, with my mouth open, unable to sleep, or relief sexual tension through masturbation (it was horrible). And another drug, can’t remember the name any longer, was the first I tried, made me feel like I was on bloody ecstasy 24/7. Out fear of a hard crash and addiction, I stopped tacking the drug after the two days. The come down wasn’t that bad as expected, probably because I was prepared.

I went to a lot of “pros” for help. And either they are quick with the prescription pad, not even getting your full story, you just tell them what you think is wrong, or they have their own ideas what is wrong with you, without listening, and bang “Here’s your prescription”. Or they are of the voodoo-new-age kind, hockus-pockus and your problems are gone…just think positive…feel the energy, people that need help themselves.

Glad I trusted myself enough, believing my perceptions of the benefits of the weed, and just hanging in there, while constantly working on myself to be able to endure the pain.

But hey, this is a tech site….

William says:

Zyprexa

Zyprexa great for crazy bad for diabetes.

The bad thing is they were encouraging there pharma reps to encourage doctors to prescribe it to people that didn’t need it like the elderly that were suffering the effects of dementia. And people that were depressed knowing that it gave people diabetes. You think your depressed now wait till you get diabetes.

And by the way for those that don’t know the drug was designed to be used to treat Schizophrenia.

Overcast says:

One of the MANY reasons I outright REFUSED to put my kid on dope like the school wanted.

Just another case of the drug pusher’s lying – perhaps ‘legal’ but drug pushers; nonetheless.

You know – I could look past the ‘info’ on the web – I take all that with a grain of salt, but Eli Lilly’s ATTEMPTED cover up of all this lends me to believe it’s very true indeed.

Overcast says:

Oh and BTW, the documents are still out there if one looks for them I’d bet, many of those sites contain file names.

If one thinks for just a second, there are a variety of ways to find data if you know a file name….

Of course, I haven’t looked myself – so who knows? lol

Yeah, go ahead and cover it up – just one more time I feel better about NOT blissfully dumping their chemical cocktails down my throat.

kaiserfraud (user link) says:

At least more incidents are calling attention to t

I’m actually a pioneer in the area of getting sued for drawing attention to online documents that incriminate a prominent player in the health care industry – Kaiser Permanente. I was not fortunate enough to get the help of the EFF since at the time I was seen as being on the wrong side of the hot button “privacy” issue, so I went through a year of dealing with this situation all by myself.

One of my chief concerns is that lawsuits can be used to put a person’s name in the public domain (where it sticks on Google forever) no matter how ridiculous the claim is. My blog was anonymous: Kaiser fought back by manipulating the legal system to expose my name and retaliate by smearing me.

This was a gross violation of my rights, and my example not only has the potential of chilling other whistleblowers, it provides a template for other corporations who want to use a multi-pronged legal/PR approach to quash whistleblowers. We will see this approach used many times in the future. I wish I could have filed a countersuit to prevent Kaiser from setting this example, but I didn’t have the money or any legal training, so all I could do is do my best to extract myself from the proceedings that Kaiser had initiated.

I hope you, and other bloggers, will do your utmost to draw attention to these situations when you see them and attempt to protect other bloggers from going through what I went through. Otherwise, we will have a world where people will be too intimidated to criticize corporations or advocate for the people being wronged by corporations.

Check out my story at http://corphq.livejournal.com.

Ed says:

Pharmaceutical misinformation

Just like how the major pharm corporations try to prevent people from knowing their “dirty little (almost) secret” by creative accounting terms and methods (which a GOP congress and president made possible). For instance, researchers who specialize in pharm issues have determined that, from the companies own yearly financial reports (which are publically available), on average they spend 11% of revenue on Research & Development (including required FDA testing). However, they spend 39% of revenue on MARKETING.

So much for their excuse and claim that high prices of current drugs are to pay for the research and discovery of new ones.

Anonymous Coward says:

Not my money any more:

Would you believe me if I told you I tell my Dr’s No drugs, I prefer old home, indian , china, and alternative where my mind works best.
Went off 3 years ago, wow do I feel better.
Senior older and wiser know days.
God gave me this body. There are foods of the Bible, learn and use them, keep healthy. Say “No”, Dr’s. % is lost.
Have a good day/pray.

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