Eli Lilly has asked for and obtained an injunction against mental health rights advocate Jim Gottstein saying he may not distribute documents obtained by subpoena from the records of a previous court case. The internal documents detail the drug maker's efforts to cover up its knowledge of serious side effects of anti depressant Zyprexa and to instruct sales people to market the drug for uses that it had not been approved for by the FDA.

The decision of judge Jack Weinstein (PDF) bars Gottstein from further distributing the documents, but the the cat is already out of the bag.

In "Leaked Documents, the Web, and Prior Restraint", Amy Gahran describes how efforts to round up the documents and put the "secret" stamp back on them will essentially be useless.

The case is highlighting a serious problem in our society: lack of transparency. In this case, documents that show reprehensible if not criminal conduct by Eli Lilly were part of a court case, but the settlement made between the drug maker and the people who had been harmed by Zyprexa included a clause that sealed the documents in perpetuity. This is a rather common practice. Drug companies are sued, the cases are settled, the documents sealed, and business continues as usual. Lilly's suppression of its own evidence has been called "reckless and threatening to women's health and life" by Dr Samuel Epstein, MD, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, according to an article by Evelyn Pringle: Eli Lilly The Habitual Offender.

While there is no chance to make the leak undone, Lilly sems to be on a punitive expedition now. The company apparently wants to "make an example" of Jim Gottstein who says the drug maker is likely to seek "financially ruinous contempt sanctions" or even go for criminal contempt of court. That would discourage future leaks, seems to be the calculation, but I am not so sure that the math is correct. If there is any trend visible at all, it is for more transparency, not less. At least that seems to be the case when we look at a new website that is soon to come on line and is slated to provide a safe place for all kinds of leaked documents: WikiLeaks.

Whistleblowers, people in government posts who publish government wrongdoing have long have protection against being dismissed or demoted, but this kind of protection has recently been much reduced or disregarded. But perhaps the anonymity afforded by the net will overcome these difficulties.

Jim Gottstein

Meanwhile, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology has instituted a legal defense fund for Jim Gottstein, to which contributions can be made and the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, whose President and CEO Gottstein is, provides some information on the recent decision and the background of the case: