Data Massaging at Lilly?

From the New York Times:

The FDA has questions about a Lilly document from February 2000 in which the company found that patients taking Zyprexa in clinical trials were three and a half times as likely to develop high blood sugar as those who did not take the drug.

That document was not submitted to the agency. But a few months later, Lilly provided data to the FDA that showed almost no difference in blood sugar between patients who took Zyprexa and those who did not.

But worry not, Lilly is claiming the above was just an honest mistake. Kind of a large mistake, eh? After the data were analyzed accurately, then Zyprexa did not appear nearly as risky. Of course, we can be sure Lilly is being honest, just like when they said that they never marketed Zyprexa as a treatment for dementia. Or the time they said that Zyprexa does not cause diabetes. Or maybe when Lilly decided to sell Zyprexa as a "safe, gentle psychotropic." I think you get the point... It is indeed possible that Lilly is being truthful, but I personally doubt it.

On a side note, good to see that Alex Berenson is back to writing about Zyprexa.