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	The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 269 No 7227 p812 7 December 2002	This page Reprint Photocopy
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Zyprexia

Supply problems

From Mr J. R. Briggs

I was surprised to see Lilly's two-page advertisement for Zyprexa in The Pharmaceutical Journal of 9 November. Since the introduction of Lilly's supply chain management scheme in March 2000, we have encountered frequent shortages of Zyprexa because the company has continuously refused to supply us with sufficient quantity to meet demand. This came to a head at the end of September this year when we had a shortfall of nearly 200 packs of Zyprexa Velotabs 10mg. Since the inception of the scheme we have received numerous complaints from pharmacists and GPs about our inability to supply this product.

Often we have had to supply either parallel-imported products or borrowed stock and in September Lilly was sending free packs of Zyprexa direct to doctors to get around the problem.

Many of our customers do not have a second wholesaler because the Government claw-back has made it uneconomical to have a second threshold to meet.

I am not recommending that health workers should use other manufacturers' products. I am simply saying that we continue to have problems with our quarterly allocation of products from Eli Lilly and, until such time as it can give us an undertaking that all orders will be met in full, we consider that problems of supply may be experienced.

Jonathan Briggs
Managing Director
East Anglian Pharmaceutical

DERICA RICE, general manager, Lilly, replies:

Lilly can confirm that it has a supply chain management system in place across its European operations for some of its products. The objective is to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Lilly's manufacturing and distribution system and ensure continued, uninterrupted supply of our products to patients. We can also confirm that Zyprexa is indeed a product within this system.

We would like to add that we are unaware of any instance where a patient who needed Zyprexa has been denied treatment. We are confident that the allocations provided to wholesalers in our system will provide sufficient product for the local market.

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