Prozac missing document drama ends

The drama about missing documents related to adverse side effects of Prozac, that also led to speculation that a Prozac recall might happen, may about to end. To recapitulate, the British Medical Journal reported that US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was to review confidential Eli Lilly documents that had been sent to the BMJ by an anonymous source. The article stated that these documents had gone "missing" during a 1994 product liability suit filed against Eli Lilly. (Related article: Harvard scientist claims that Prozac has adverse side effects like suicidal behavior)

As soon as the news broke, there was intense speculation about what Eli Lilly knew and what it did not disclose. Eli Lilly subsequently denied that it hid any information in a lawsuit in the UK. (Related article: Prozac contoversy gets interesting) This led to an investigation by the Journal that revealed that all of the documents supplied to the BMJ that were either Eli Lilly documents or were in the hands of Eli Lilly had in fact been disclosed during the suit. At the end of the trial, all the documents were preserved by Court Order or were disclosed by Eli Lilly to the plaintiffs' lawyers in related Prozac claims. (Related article: Eli Lilly claims that Prozac is a safe drug)

In a statement released by the Journal, it said, "The BMJ did not intend to suggest that Eli Lilly caused these documents to go missing. As a result of the investigation, it is clear that these documents did not go missing. The BMJ accepts that Eli Lilly acted properly in relation to the disclosure of these documents in these claims. The BMJ is happy to set the record straight and to apologise to Eli Lilly for this statement, which we now retract, but which we published in good faith."

This has, however, not ended the drama in the legal world. A Prozac class action lawsuit has been filed in Canada.

Other drug recall links:

Vioxx recall

Celebrex recall

Bextra recall

Reminyl recall

Nexium recall