The official website for the drug Olanzapine probably didn’t mention the fact it might cause diabetic symptoms in patients. Another website obviously did. Commercials on TV now are required to mention possible side effects. Should drug companies be required to come clean about situations like the one with Eli Lilly’s Olanzapine in their commercial websites? Why or why not?
In this case, we again come upon the issue of once something is put on the web, it stays on the web. "The world is a different place from a time when the judge could have ordered the return of all copies of offending materials" says Abelson. In the Olanzapine case, the Zyprexa website did not inform its viewers of the possible side effects of the drug and it wasn't until the information leaked that people found out about it. Once the information was up, it was out there for everyone to see and the reputation of the drug was then diminished. I think that this is absurd and if someone is looking into taking a drug, they should know all about what it does, good or bad. The drug companies and the research companies are really the only people who know the complete list of symptoms that occur after taking the drug and if they do not disclose this information, who is going to? It could be fatal before any doctors or patients find out about it.
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So, would you support your doctor spending a portion of his time researching drugs beyond the leaflets that the companies provide for how to prescribe their medications?
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