Houston lawyers to earn big bucks on qui tam Zyprexa suit

On Thursday federal prosecutors announced pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. has agreed to pay a combined $1.42 billion (yes, that’s a “b”) to settle a spate of whistle-blower suits and criminal charges, including $515 million, the largest criminal fine in history, according to a story in The Legal Intelligencer, a Philadelphia-based affiliate of Texas Lawyer. Both the civil and the criminal suits involve allegedly false or fraudulent marketing, promotion and sale of the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa. Of that total amount, an estimated $118 million will be split among eight former Eli Lilly salespeople who blew the whistle on the questionable practices, says Houston lawyer Joel Androphy of Berg & Androphy. Along with Sarah Frazier, a partner in the firm, he represents one of the eight salespeople. Androphy says his client’s case came to him through a lawyer referral -- the same way most of cases come to him -- and he knew immediately that it was a good one. “I have seen enough of these off-label marketing cases to know that this was ripe for a significant recovery,” he says. Androphy says his firm's attorneys fees will come out of the $118 million earmarked for the group of whistle-blowers. It will include both the firm’s contingency fee and the lawyers’ hourly rate, he says, a "double recovery" that’s allowed in qui tam actions. Androphy estimates he’s got about $250,000 worth of his time invested in this case. But Lilly won’t be issuing any checks until it enters a plea of guilty and is sentenced in the criminal case, he says. He predicts this will happen in about 30 days. At that point, he says, he and his wife will fly to New York to personally hand over the check to his client -- once his client pays for dinner and a show, that is. “That was the deal going in,” Androphy says with a laugh. Then it’s “on to the next case.” He says he has dozens of similar qui tam actions, but he can’t say any more than that. “You can’t talk about them because the cases are under seal,” he says. “It’s like a civil grand jury investigation where the government -- federal and state -- investigate it.” Eli Lilly spokeswoman Marni Lemons declines comment and points to a press release issued by the company Jan. 15. In the statement, the company writes that, despite the settlement, it “disagrees with and does not admit to the civil allegations." As to the resolution of the criminal complaint with the guilty plea to one misdemeanor violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, CEO John C. Lechleiter in the release writes, "We deeply regret the past actions covered by the misdemeanor plea."
-- Jenny B. Davis