Attorney General Issues Subpoenas in Case of Prozac Mailed to S. Floridians
By Glenn Singer, Business Writer
Originally published in the Sun-Sentinel, July 9, 2002
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth issued investigative subpoenas to determine whether state laws were violated when Prozac tablets were mailed unsolicited to a Broward County resident.
The subpoenas were issued to: Prozac's manufacturer, Eli Lilly & Co.; distributor Walgreens Co.; and Holy Cross Hospital Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, which operates the Holy Cross Medical Group; and medical group members Drs. Zonia Acosta, Kenneth Burke and Lise M. Lambert and Physician's Assistant Natasha Attalah.
In addition to issuing the subpoenas, Butterworth referred the names of the four medical group members to the Department of Health to investigate whether they might have violated Florida's Medical Practices Act.
Butterworth said he took the action after a free sample of Prozac formulated to be taken weekly rather than daily was sent unsolicited to at least one woman. A letter signed by the medical group members accompanied the medication, which was contained in a Walgreens envelope.
In a prepared statement, Butterworth said: "This type of activity raises serious questions in the areas of both public health and marketing. There is legitimate concern that the unsolicited delivery of prescription drugs could lead to dangerous misuse. At the same time, it raises the specter that privacy rights are being violated by misusing medical information to target likely candidates for a particular drug."
Butterworth said the subpoenas are intended to determine whether the solicitation violated any Florida laws, including the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. He also said he wants to know how many Floridians were targeted by the mail solicitation or others like it.
On Monday, Eli Lilly & Co. suspended several employees after free samples of the antidepressant Prozac Weekly were mailed to patients in South Florida without their knowledge or permission, a company spokeswoman said.
The suspensions, with pay, come as the Florida attorney general's office launches an investigation into whether Lilly violated the state's unfair trade law by allowing the prescriptions to be filled by the Walgreen Co. and sent to people with a history of depression.
"We're in the initial stages, just gathering information at this point," attorney general's office spokesman Joe Bizarro said.
Bizarro said the investigation, prompted by a story in last Tuesday's Sun-Sentinel, is being headed by Senior Assistant Attorney General John Newton.
Newton also is investigating the Eckerd Corp. for sending drug solicitations to patients on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.
Lilly spokeswoman Debbie Davis said her firm had not heard from the attorney general's office. Nor had company lawyers seen a lawsuit filed last Monday by a Broward County woman who received Prozac samples in the mail and claimed violations of privacy law and other state statutes. She was identified in the lawsuit only as "S.K."
The Prozac Weekly samples were intended to bring patients back to a patented Lilly drug now that daily Prozac has lost patent protection and a generic version is available, S.K.'s lawyer, Gary M. Farmer Jr., said.
Davis said Lilly continues to investigate what happened, adding, "What occurred was inconsistent with Lilly policy" and that the mailing of free sample medication without a request from a patient "is inappropriate and inconsistent with corporate policy."
"We understand why people would be concerned about receiving unsolicited prescriptions in the mail. To the extent Lilly personnel participated, Lilly apologizes to those patients affected by it," the company said in a statement.
Davis said Lilly believes doctors' offices generated lists of patients taking Prozac, wrote prescriptions and sent them directly to Walgreens. She said the company still is looking into the involvement of its marketing representatives and would not explain specifically why they were suspended in connection with the samples.
Spokesman Bizarro said that the attorney general's office can levy civil penalties of $10,000 for each incident that violates the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. He said investigators will forward the case to the state Board of Medicine for possible action against physicians involved.
