A federal appeals court in New York threw out a September 2008 ruling by Judge Jack B. Weinstein of United States District Court in Brooklyn. The Judge had ruled that the plaintiffs could pursue as a group claims that Lilly’s Zyprexa marketing caused them to pay more for the drug than it was worth. The plaintiffs were seeking $6.8 billion in damages.
Judge Weinstein had ruled in favor of the unions, pension funds and insurance companies, known as third-party payers, rejecting Lilly’s argument that their claims were too different to be tried together. The appeals court reversed that decision, finding that the link between marketing Zyprexa to doctors and the injury claimed by the payers was “attenuated.”
“Crucially, the third-party payers do not allege that they relied on Lilly’s misrepresentations — the misrepresentations at issue were ‘directed through mailings and otherwise at doctors,’ ” the appeals court said.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/business/11drug.html?_r=1&partner=yahoofinance
