Breaking down the dirty of specific pharma companies: #6 Lilly (Formerly Eli-Lilly)

Today we visit Lilly, the company formerly known as Eli Lilly and Company.

Lilly and company is primarily in the diabetes business.  Those fancy new Diabetes drugs?  Jardiance? Trulicity?  Mounjaro?  All Eli Lilly and company products.  They also manufacture old school insulin like Humalog and Humulin, so when everyone gets angry and mad at the price of insulin being ridiculously expensive, you can go scream and yell at Eli Lilly and Company.  THEY are the satan spawn that are responsible for that shenanigan.  Another fun factoid:  they were the first company to mass produce the Polio vaccine.

In the psychiatry field, Lilly brought us Cymbalta, Prozac, Strattera, and Zyprexa.  All meds used for depression, ADHD, and bipolar/schizophrenia.  I will say I use a lot of Zyprexa, it is cheap generic now, and it gets the job done really well. Strattera has been successful in maybe 1 out of 10 patients.

Bonus drug mention here:  Lilly also brought to market Cialis.  Remember the bathtub commercials for “when the moment is right for you?”  That was Lilly.

Some of their historical shenanigans:

In 2009 Lilly pleaded guilty for illegally marketing Zyprexa and agreed to pay a $1.415 billion penalty that included criminal fine of $515 million, the largest ever in a healthcare case and the largest criminal fine for

an individual corporation ever imposed in a US criminal prosecution of any kind at the time.

Their covid history: they are the gatekeepers and producers of monoclonal antibodies.

In June 2020, the company announced it had begun the world's first study of a potential monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19, with a Phase 1 trial in collaboration with Vancouver-based company AbCellera.  By August 2020, the challenging aspects of running a clinical trial in a long-term care facility during a pandemic prompted Lilly to create the first of many customized recreational vehicles into mobile research units (MRU) to meet people were they were and support mobile labs and clinical trial material preparation. A trailer truck could escort the MRU with supplies to create an on-site infusion clinic. Lilly deployed the mobile research unit fleet in response to outbreaks of the virus at long-term care facilities across the U.S. In September 2020, Amgen announced that they had partnered with Eli Lilly to manufacture their COVID-19 antibody therapies. (Oh goodie another pharma company joins the party!)

On 7 October 2020, Lilly announced that its cocktail was effective and that it had filed with the Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization (EUA). This was the same day that rival company Regeneron also filed for an EUA for its own monoclonal antibody treatment. In October 2020, Lilly announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ACTIV-3 clinical trial evaluating its monoclonal antibody, bamlanivimab  found that bamlanivimab was not effective in treating people hospitalized with COVID-19, however data showed bamlanivimab might have been effective in treating COVID-19 by reducing viral load, symptoms and the risk of hospitalization in outpatients. Other studies, including the NIH ACTIV-2 trial and its own BLAZE-1 trial, continued to evaluate bamlanivimab. In November 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adult and pediatric patients.  On 16 April 2021, the FDA revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) that allowed and signaled FDA agreement for the investigational monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab, when administered alone, to be used for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and certain pediatric patients.  They completely pulled balanivimab in 2022 when it was found to have zero efficacy against Omicron.

Here is the press release for when they pulled Bebtelovimab off the EUA in November 2022.  https://assets.ctfassets.net/srys4ukjcerm/12usAbFN8OOmQ56PppFoaU/93829c24d249d75ba1f18d5d3cda3d33/Lilly-s_statement_on_FDA_De-Authorization_of_bebtelvimab_in_the_US.pdf

Important points to this press release:  “Severe hypersensitivity reactions and infusion-related reactions, have been observed with administration of bebtelovimab, including in pregnant patients. Pregnant patients who develop severe hypersensitivity and infusion-related reactions should be managed appropriately, including obstetrical care. There are insufficient data to evaluate a drug- associated risk of major birth defects, miscarriage, or adverse maternal or fetal outcomes. Bebtelovimab should only be used during pregnancy if the potential benefit outweighs the potential risk for the mother and the fetus.”

And this as well:  There are no available data on the presence of bebtelovimab in human or animal milk, the effects on the breastfed infant, or the effects on milk production. Breastfeeding individuals with COVID-19 should follow practices according to clinical guidelines to avoid exposing the infant to COVID-19.

Wonder how many OB’s sent their pregnant and lactating women for monoclonal antibodies?  None of them were tested in the population yet I am sure plenty of them got infusions!

Here is a link to the archives of the Eli Lilly covid pandemic response initiative: https://www.lilly.com/news/stories/coronavirus-covid19-global-response-archives

Every dog has its bone, and Lilly was not in the vaccine game, they just took a boat load of government funding for monoclonal antibodies.