Misdirected E-mail Reveals Billion-Dollar Drug Lawsuit

by Will Safer on February 8, 2008 at 04:23 PM

E-mail sent to the wrong address

Here's another tale of e-mail messages gone awry that ought to teach you to be careful the next time you hit the "send" button.

A lawyer for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly mistakenly sent an important e-mail to a New York Times reporter whose name is similar to that of another lawyer working with her on a billion dollar settlement between the drug company and the U.S. government.

Eli Lilly is looking to settle accusations that it hadn't properly marketed the drug Zyprexa, which was developed to treat schizophrenia. If the settlement goes through -- the Times article notes -- the fine would be the "largest ever paid by a drug company for breaking the federal laws that govern how drug makers can promote their medicines." The company had wanted to keep the negotiations quiet.

The New York Times reporter, Alex Berenson, started making calls to the company for comments after getting the e-mail that had been intended for lawyer Brad Berenson, who works at white shoe firm Sidley Austin. The New York Times ended up putting the story on the front page of the newspaper. Eli Lilly executives thought at first the government had leaked the story, but soon found out it was from the Philadelphia-based firm Pepper Hamilton, which is part of its outside legal team.

There's more than one way to make a big e-mail mistake like this. Sometimes a person puts in the wrong address. Sometimes a person sends the wrong message to everyone. And sometimes you've got the right email address but you're forwarding all the wrong information!

The lesson here? Pay attention to the who, what and where of your email. It's a great convenience and good tool for business -- but dangerous in the hands of the sloppy.

Word is Eli Lilly will continue to retain the two lawyers' law firms -- but there is no word on what role the sloppy lawyer will play in the case going forward.

From NetworkWorld.com and Portfolio.com.

Comments

Daniel HaszardFeb 8th 2008 4:58PM

Neutral

In a word "VIVA ZYPREXA"

Zyprexa off label promotion scandal is all over the news now.
Lilly drug reps are alleged to have called their marketing ploy,"Viva Zyprexa".

Zyprexa which is only FDA approved for schizophrenia (.5-1% of pop) and some bipolar (2% pop) and then an even smaller percentage of theses two groups.
So how does Zyprexa get to be the 7th (some say 5th) largest drug sale in the world?

Eli Lilly is in deep trouble for using their drug reps to 'encourage' doctors to write zyprexa for non-FDA approved 'off label' uses.

The drug causes increased diabetes risk,and medicare picks up all the expensive fallout.There are now 8 states (and counting) going after Lilly for fraud and restitution.

Only 9 percent of adult Americans think the pharmaceutical industry can be trusted right around the same rating as big tobacco.

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KennFeb 8th 2008 6:28PM

Neutral

DOH

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onebloodFeb 9th 2008 10:32PM

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I apologize if this is a simplistic question. What is a 'white shoe' firm? Thanks.

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web jonesFeb 10th 2008 9:33AM

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I found this on the wall street journal:

"So, we were prompted to ask, what’s with “white shoe” anyway?

Grant Barrett, project editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang and author of the the upcoming book “Official Dictionary of Unofficial English,” passed along his definition:

[A]s applied to large legal and financial firms and their employees, conservative, staid, well-established, financially powerful; formerly and less frequently today, elitist, WASPy; the opposite of blue-collar."

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major damageFeb 10th 2008 6:47PM

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"WHITE SHOE" DOVETAILS WITH THE ARCHAIC TERM "FULL MICHIGAN".LONG AGO, THE WELL-TO-DO IN CHICAGO WORE WHITE SHOES AND A WHITE BELT.THIS FASHION EVENTAULLY SPREAD TO THE GENERAL POPULATION.SO WHITE BELT/SHOES BECAME KNOWN AS A "FULL MICHIGAN".

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NitpickerFeb 10th 2008 11:43PM

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Will Safer better check his writing too; he has a mistake in his first sentence!!

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Will SaferFeb 11th 2008 8:50AM

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Noted -- and fixed. Thanks Nitpicker.

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