DOCUMENTS sent anonymously to the British Medical Journal suggest that in the 1980s the maker of Prozac, Eli Lilly, failed to disclose all it knew about the link between the antidepressant and the risk of violent or suicidal behaviour. The documents have been passed to the US Food and Drug Administration.
One of the documents, dated 8 November 1988, reports that during one trial 38 per cent of patients on Prozac experienced 鈥渁ctivation鈥�, a cluster of symptoms that includes agitation, panic attacks, insomnia and aggressiveness. 鈥淭his is an alarming study that should have been shared with the public and the FDA from the get-go, not 16 years later,鈥� says New York Congressman Maurice Hinchley, who is reviewing the documents to determine whether Eli Lilly withheld information from the public and FDA.
Eli Lilly says it has published 鈥渨idely鈥� on the links between Prozac and activation. It says the drug鈥檚 safety is 鈥渨ell established鈥�.
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The BMJ claims that the documents went missing during a 1994 court case. In 1989, Joseph Wesbecker, a patient who had begun taking Prozac a month earlier, shot and killed eight people and wounded another 12 before committing suicide. Survivors and relatives sought damages from Eli Lilly. The jury found for the company, but the judge later dismissed the verdict as invalid after discovering that Eli Lilly had secretly settled with the plaintiffs during the trial.
