Eli Lilly & Company

views updated May 18 2018

Eli Lilly & Company

307 E. McCarty Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46285
U.S.A.
(317) 261-2000

Public Company
Incorporated: January 17, 1901
Employees: 28,000
Sales: $3.710 billion
Market Value: $13.210 billion
Stock Index: New York Basle Geneva Zurich

Although Eli Lilly & Company has in recent years been embroiled in controversy and been the target of numerous lawsuits related to its products, the Indianapolis-based giant is still among the leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. In a Fortune magazine survey of corporate performance, Lilly moved from seventh to sixth place in the industry’s rankings during 1986. And despite involvement in more than one allegedly unscrupulous drug promotional campaign, the company remains one of the most profitable manufacturers of ethical drugs in the world.

Lilly manufactures human health, agricultural, and cosmetic products in 18 plants and facilities in the United States, including its Indianapolis headquarters, and in 32 plants in 28 countries around the world. The company’s products are sold in more than 130 countries. Lilly commands more than 300 wholesale distribution outlets and employs about 1,300 salaried sales representatives in the United States, and at least as many abroad.

Despite these huge domestic and international operations, Lilly jealously guards its American heartland values and wields significant influence in its native city. For instance, in 1971 Forbes magazine prepared a company profile, but because Lilly did not want the article published, an Indianapolis newspaper refused to sell Forbes photographs of the Lilly family.

Much of this community loyalty stems from Lilly’s long history of paternalism and generosity. In 1876 Colonel Eli Lilly, a Civil War veteran, acquired a laboratory in Indianapolis and began to manufacture drugs. The business established itself successfully with the innovation of gelatin-coated capsules, and it wasn’t long before Colonel Lilly used company profits to benefit the community. He donated money to build a children’s hospital and chaired a committee that helped indigents during the financial panic of 1893.

This civic consciousness was inherited by the second generation of Lilly management. During the Depression, the Colonel’s grandson, Eli Lilly, refused to lay off any employees. Instead, he had them help with general maintenance of the facility until they could return to their normal jobs.

Lilly established the Lilly Endowment to provide financial support for educational institutions. The family donated $5 million worth of rare books to Indiana University, and later donated a coin collection worth $5.5 million to the Smithsonian Institution. The foundation also funded new buildings, music schools, student centers, and laboratories in every college and university in Indiana and in several around the country.

Lilly also laid the foundations for its reputation for marketing ingenuity in those early years. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake Lilly did not wait for requests for medicine to arrive; the company sent as much of its stock as it could to the disaster area. Since then the ready availability of Lilly’s products has been central to its marketing strategy. That and aggressive advertising campaigns, plus its large, eager sales force, have been the keys to its marketing success.

Besides being a pioneer in pharmaceutical marketing, Lilly has been notable for its development of many important drugs. In the 1920’s the company developed insulin from a hormone extracted from the pancreas of pigs. Today Lilly is the leading manufacturer of insulin, commanding at least 75% of the American market. Later in the decade the company produced a liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia. In the 1930’s Lilly laboratories synthesized barbituric acids, essential to the production of drugs used in surgery and obstetrics. In 1955 Lilly manufactured 60% of the Salk polio vaccine. But the company’s greatest contribution to human health has been in production of penicillins and other antibiotics that revolutionized the treatment of disease.

Throughout this era of innovation and expansion, and up until recently, Lilly’s management remained a constant. Every president and almost every member of the board of directors was either a direct descendant of Colonel Lilly or a native of the Midwest, if not of Indiana. After the Colonel’s death in 1898, his son, Josiah Lilly, ran the company for the next 34 years. He was succeeded by son Eli and later by Josiah Jr. During the 16-year presidency of Eli Lilly, sales rose from $13 million in 1932 to $117 million in!948. After Eli relinquished his executive powers to his brother, he became the titular chairman of the company. Upon his death at age 91, he had lived to see the company reach $1 billion in sales.

Josiah Jr.’s presidency marked the last reign of a direct family descendant. Richard Wood, the current chief executive officer, is only the second of six presidents to be an “outsider.” He was, of course, born and raised in Indiana and is a longtime Lilly employee.

Not only is the company’s clannishness evident in the executive branch, it is also apparent in Lilly’s management style. In 1971, of the $4 billion worth of company stock, members and descendants of the Lilly family owned $1 billion of that stock, while the Lilly Endowment (controlled by the family) owned $900 million worth. Furthermore, the foundation has resisted making large disbursements, and it was not until the 1969 Tax Reform Act that the foundation was forced to loosen its 25% hold on stock. Yet in 1979 the foundation continued to hold 18.6% of company shares.

Lilly’s conservative management paralleled its outspoken ideology. During the 1960’s the Lilly endowment professed a specific political mission. The foundation was to support an understanding of “anti-communism, free enterprise, [and] limited government.”

Despite what some have called an anachronistic approach to business, no one can dispute Lilly’s financial success. In the 1970’s, while the rest of the drug industry was depressed, Lilly doubled in size. When the pharmaceutical business was hit hard by competition from generic drugs that flooded the marketplace after the expiration of patents for drugs discovered in the 1950’s and ’60s, Lilly diversified into agricultural chemicals, animal-health products, medical instruments, and beauty-care products.

Meanwhile, Lilly increased its expenditure on research and development of pharmaceuticals, spending $235 million in those areas in 1981 alone. The immediate result was three new drugs: Ceclor, an oral cephalosporin antibiotic; Dobutrex, a heart-failure treatment; and Mandol, an injectable cephalosporin effective against a broad spectrum of hospital-acquired infections. The release of the new cephalosporins represented a significant step for Lilly. The company had always been dominant in the antibiotic market, but competition from Merck, SmithKline, and foreign drug companies threatened Lilly’s supremacy. With the new drugs, the company was able to recapture hegemony of the cephalosporin market; of the $3.27 billion in company sales in 1985, $1.05 billion was from the sale of antibiotics.

A similar success story resulted after the company bought Elizabeth Arden for $38 million in 1971. At first glance, the purchase of the beauty-care company seemed an unwise move. Elizabeth Arden had been a money loser and continued to lose money for five years after Lilly acquired it. Lilly management seemed to have no idea of the intense competition in the beauty industry. But, in an unusual move, Lilly hired outsiders to fill its subsidiary’s top executive positions, and by 1982 Elizabeth Arden’s sales were up 90% from 1978, with profits doubling to nearly $30 million.

The introduction of several new drugs in the late 1970’s increased Lilly’s sales and challenged the market boundaries of competing products. Lilly released Nalfon, an anti-inflammatory drug, to compete with Merck’s number-one-selling Indocin. In addition, the company introduced Cinobac, an antibacterial agent used to treat urinary-tract infections; Eldisine, a treatment for childhood leukemia; Moxam, a potent new antibiotic licensed from Shionogi, a Japanese drug company; and Benoxaprofen, an antiarthritic introduced in the United Kingdom. Moreover, using groundbreaking recombinant DNA technology, Lilly was among the first to produce human insulin from bacteria. This breakthrough promised to protect Lilly’s majority share of the insulin market.

The initial flurry over the possible hazardous side effects of a popular analgesic called Darvon seemed to have subsided. Critics had charged that the drug was both ineffective and had the dangerous potential for abuse, but Lilly mounted an educational campaign on proper use of the drug and continued to hold 80% of the prescription analgesic market. Darvon generated annual sales of $100 million.

With a 19% increase in sales in 1978, a 24% return on equity, and impressive results from President Wood’s foreign-market campaign, Lilly’s prospects seemed excellent. Then, however, company growth began to fall short of projected figures.

In 1982, a miscalculation of inventory and expected sales caused Lilly to produce far more Treflan (a soybean herbicide) than it could sell. With the patents expiring on Treflan and two animal products, and with the overproduction of Treflan, income from agricultural products suddenly did not look as promising as it once had.

Furthermore, profits from Moxam had to be shared with Shionogi, the Japanese partner in the joint venture. And the patent on Keflin, an injectable cephalosporin that had been generating $100 million in sales, expired in November 1982.

Lilly’s diversification into medical instruments through the acquisition of I VAC Corporation, a manufacturer of vital-signs-monitoring systems and intravenous-fluid-infusion equipment, and Cardiac Pacemaker, a manufacturer of heart pacemakers, cost Lilly $286 million in stock, a significant investment with an unknown potential for profits. And since the combined assets of its medical instrument subsidiaries and Elizabeth Arden represented only 20% of the entire company, their projected profits were not expected to have a substantial effect on company profits as a whole.

Of more concern, however, was the re-emerging specter of Darvon’s addictive qualities. Ralph Nader’s consumer-advocacy group demanded a ban on Darvon because of its alleged associations with suicides, overdoses, and misuse by addicts. Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, harshly criticized the sincerity of Lilly’s educational campaign. He went so far as to recommend that Darvon and other propoxyphene products not be prescribed “unless there really isn’t an alternative, and then only with care.” The FDA charged that Lilly’s educational campaign actually amounted to ingenious marketing. (Lilly sales representatives not only gave doctors educational material that emphasized the drug’s positive attributes, they also conveniently left samples.)

To the company’s dismay, Darvon was not the only drug to cause a controversy. Oraflex, the American version of Benoxaprofen, was withdrawn from the market in August 1982. Only one month after the FDA approved Oraflex, a British medical journal documented five cases of death due to jaundice in patients taking the drug. The FDA accused Lilly of suppressing “unfavorable research findings.” Initial warnings about the possibility of inconsequential side effects were later amended to include the threat of jaundice, but only after the company had already applied for FDA approval.

At a time when drug-regulation reform would have allowed companies to interpret the results of their own lab tests, the Oraflex controversy represented a major disaster. Furthermore, publicity for the drug, which was projected to be a $100 million seller (prescriptions for Oraflex increased by 194,000 in just one month), had been unwittingly distorted. Reports from outside the company had falsely claimed that the drug could cure arthritis.

On August 21,1985, the Oraflex controversy culminated when the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against Lilly and Dr. William Ian H. Shedden, the former vice-president and chief medical officer of Lilly Research Laboratories. The Justice Department accused the defendants of failing to inform the government about four deaths and six illnesses related to Oraflex. Lilly pleaded guilty to 25 criminal counts that resulted in a $25,000 fine. Shedden pleaded no contest to 15 criminal counts and was fined $15,000. All 40 counts were misdemeanors; there was no charge against Lilly of intentional deception.

Lilly has also been cited as a defendant in a lawsuit filed agains drug manufacturers and distributors of diethylstilbestrol (DES). The drug, which was prescribed to pregnant women during the 1940’s and 1950’s to prevent miscarriages, caused vaginal cancer and related problems in their children. Lilly was the first and largest manufacturer of DES, and it is estimated that 40% of the drug came from Lilly production facilities. In 1981 a court ordered the company to pay $500,000 in damages to one plaintiff, and in 1985 Lilly was ordered to pay $400,000 to the first male seeking damages in a DES-related case. Other claims are asking for damages totaling in the billions of dollars.

Of all Lilly’s projected successes, human insulin manufactured using recombinant DNA technology has the greatest potential. Although recombinant techniques remain costly because of their infancy, manufacturing will eventually be on a much larger scale than that of traditional methods of obtaining insulin. The 1986 acquisition of Hybritech, a genetic engineering company, emphasizes Lilly’s commitment to the future of biotechnology.

That commitment, plus its aggressive marketing techniques, small army of sales representatives, and efficient wholesale distribution network, should keep Lilly near the top of the pharmaceutical industry.

Principal Subsidiaries

Eli Lilly International Corp.; Elizabeth Arden, Inc.; Bethco Fragrances, Inc.; Philip Kingsley Products, Inc.; ELCO Management Corp.; Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc.; Physio-Control Corp.; I VAC Corp.; Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. The company also lists subsidiaries in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Finland, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Venezuela, and West Germany.

Eli Lilly & Company

views updated May 23 2018

Eli Lilly & Company

Lilly Corporate Center
Indianapolis, Indiana 46285
U.S.A.
(317) 276-2000
Fax: (317) 276-3492

Public Company
Incorporated: 1901
Employees: 28,000
Sales: $6.45 billion
Stock Exchanges: New York Boston Cincinnati NASDAQ
Philadelphia Basel Geneva Zurich
SICs: 2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations; 2835 Diagnostic
Substances; 3841 Surgical and Medical Instruments; 5122
Drugs, Proprietaries, and Sundries; 3845 Electromedical
Equipment; 2948 Prepared Feed, Not Elsewhere Classified

Eli Lilly & Company discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets ethical drugs in 14 plants and facilities in the United States and in 25 plants in 19 countries around the world. The company’s products are sold in more than 120 countries. Although Lilly was embroiled in controversy and became the target of numerous lawsuits related to its products in the early 1990s, the Indianapolis-based giant still ranked among the leaders in the pharmaceutical industry in the early 1990s. In 1993, for the first time in its history, Lilly was led by an executive who had not had a career with the venerable drug company. Chairperson and CEO Randall L. Tobias launched a strategic restructuring of the troubled company that year in the hopes of returning Lilly to its former glory.

Despite its huge domestic and international operations, Lilly continued to maintain a close allegiance to the American Midwest and wielded significant influence in its native city. For instance, in 1971 Forbes magazine prepared a profile of the company, but because Lilly did not want the article published, an Indianapolis newspaper refused to sell Forbes photographs of the Lilly family.

Much of this community loyalty stems from Lilly’s long history of paternalism and generosity. In 1876, Colonel Eli Lilly, a Civil War veteran, acquired a laboratory in Indianapolis and began to manufacture drugs. The business established itself successfully with the innovation of gelatin-coated capsules, and it wasn’t long before Colonel Lilly used company profits to benefit the community. He donated money to build a children’s hospital and chaired a committee that helped the indigent during the financial panic of 1893.

This civic consciousness was inherited by the second generation of Lilly management. During the Depression, the Colonel’s grandson, Eli Lilly, refused to lay off any employees. Instead, he had them help with general maintenance of the facility until they could return to their normal jobs.

Lilly established the Lilly Endowment to provide financial support for educational institutions. The family donated $5 million worth of rare books to Indiana University and later donated a coin collection worth $5.5 million to the Smithsonian Institution. The foundation also funded new buildings, music schools, student centers, and laboratories in every college and university in Indiana and in several around the country.

Lilly also laid the foundations for its reputation for marketing ingenuity in those early years. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Lilly did not wait for requests for medicine to arrive; the company sent as much of its stock as it could to the disaster area. Since then the ready availability of Lilly’s products has been central to its marketing strategy. That and aggressive advertising campaigns, plus its large, eager sales force, have been the keys to its marketing success.

Besides being a pioneer in pharmaceutical marketing, Lilly was known for its development of many important drugs. In the 1920s, the company developed insulin from a hormone extracted from the pancreas of pigs; Lilly would remain the leading manufacturer of insulin, commanding at least 75 percent of the American market in the early 1990s. Later in the 1920s, the company produced a liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia. In the 1930s, Lilly laboratories synthesized barbituric acids, essential to the production of drugs used in surgery and obstetrics. In 1955, Lilly manufactured 60 percent of the Salk polio vaccine. But the company’s greatest contribution to human health was in production of penicillins and other antibiotics that revolutionized the treatment of disease.

Throughout this era of innovation and expansion, and up until the late 1980s, Lilly’s management remained a constant. Every president and almost every member of the board of directors was either a direct descendant of Colonel Lilly or a native of the Midwest, if not of Indiana. After the Colonel’s death in 1898, his son, Josiah Lilly, ran the company for the next 34 years. He was succeeded by son Eli and later by Josiah Jr. During the 16-year presidency of Eli Lilly, sales rose from $13 million in 1932 to $117 million in 1948. After Eli relinquished his executive powers to his brother, he became the titular chairperson of the company. Upon his death at age 91, he had lived to see the company reach $1 billion in sales.

Josiah Jr.’s presidency marked the last reign of a direct family descendant. Richard Wood, who advanced to the CEO position in 1973, was only the second of six presidents to be an “outsider.” He was, of course, born and raised in Indiana and was a longtime Lilly employee.

Not only was the company’s clannishness evident in the executive branch, it was also apparent in Lilly’s management style. In 1971, members and descendants of the Lilly family owned $1 billion of the $4 billion in company stock, while the Lilly Endowment (controlled by the family) owned another $900 million. Furthermore, the foundation resisted making large disbursements, and it was not until the 1969 Tax Reform Act that the foundation was forced to loosen its 25 percent hold on stock. Still, in 1979 the foundation continued to hold 18.6 percent of company shares.

Lilly’s conservative management paralleled its outspoken ideology. During the 1960s, the Lilly Endowment professed a specific political mission. The foundation was to support an understanding of “anti-communism, free enterprise, [and] limited government.” Despite what some have called an anachronistic approach to business, no one can dispute Lilly’s financial success. In the 1970s, while the rest of the drug industry was depressed, Lilly doubled in size. When the pharmaceutical business was hit hard by competition from generic drugs that flooded the marketplace after the expiration of patents for drugs discovered in the 1950s and 1960s, Lilly diversified into agricultural chemicals, animal-health products, medical instruments, and beauty-care products.

Meanwhile, Lilly increased its expenditure on research and development of Pharmaceuticals, spending $235 million in those areas in 1981 alone. The immediate result was three new drugs: Ceclor, an oral cephalosporin antibiotic; Dobutrex, a heart-failure treatment; and Mandol, an injectable cephalosporin effective against a broad spectrum of hospital-acquired infections. The release of the new cephalosporins represented a significant step for Lilly. The company had always been dominant in the antibiotic market, but competition from Merck, SmithKline, and foreign drug companies threatened Lilly’s supremacy. With the new drugs, the company was able to recapture hegemony of the cephalosporin market; of the $3.27 billion in company sales in 1985, $1.05 billion was from the sale of antibiotics.

A similar success story resulted after the company bought Elizabeth Arden for $38 million in 1971. At first glance, the purchase of the beauty-care company seemed an unwise move. Elizabeth Arden had been a money loser and continued to lose money for five years after Lilly acquired it. Lilly management seemed to have no idea of the intense competition in the beauty industry. But, in an unusual move, Lilly hired outsiders to fill its subsidiary’s top executive positions, and by 1982 Elizabeth Arden’s sales were up 90 percent from 1978, with profits doubling to nearly $30 million.

The introduction of several new drugs in the late 1970s increased Lilly’s sales and challenged the market boundaries of competing products. Lilly released Nalfon, an anti-inflammatory drug, to compete with Merck’s top selling Indocin. In addition, the company introduced Cinobac, an antibacterial agent used to treat urinary-tract infections; Eldisine, a treatment for childhood leukemia; Moxam, a potent new antibiotic licensed from Shionogi, a Japanese drug company; and Benoxa-profen, an antiarthritic introduced in the United Kingdom. Moreover, using groundbreaking recombinant DNA technology, Lilly was among the first to produce human insulin from bacteria. This breakthrough promised to protect Lilly’s majority share of the insulin market.

During this time, the initial flurry over the possible hazardous side effects of a popular analgesic called Darvon seemed to have subsided. Critics had charged that the drug was both ineffective and had the dangerous potential for abuse, but Lilly mounted an educational campaign on proper use of the drug and continued to hold 80 percent of the prescription analgesic market. Darvon generated annual sales of $100 million.

With a 19 percent increase in sales in 1978, a 24 percent return on equity, and impressive results from Wood’s foreign-market campaign, Lilly’s prospects seemed excellent. Then, however, company growth began to fall short of projected figures. In 1982, a miscalculation of inventory and expected sales caused Lilly to produce far more Treflan (a soybean herbicide) than it could sell. With the patents expiring on Treflan and two animal products, and with the overproduction of Treflan, income from agricultural products suddenly did not look as promising as it once had. Furthermore, profits from Moxam had to be shared with Shionogi, the Japanese partner in the joint venture. And the patent on Keflin, an injectable cephalosporin that had been generating $100 million in sales, expired in November 1982.

Lilly’s diversification into medical instruments through the acquisition of IVAC Corporation—a manufacturer of systems that monitored vital signs and equipment for intravenous fluid infusion—and Cardiac Pacemaker—a manufacturer of heart pacemakers—cost Lilly $286 million in stock, a significant investment with an unknown potential for profits. And since the combined assets of its medical instrument subsidiaries and Elizabeth Arden represented only 20 percent of the entire company, their projected profits were not expected to have a substantial effect on company profits as a whole. Elizabeth Arden was, in fact, later sold to Fabergé, Inc. for $657 million in 1987.

Of more concern, however, was the re-emerging specter of Darvon’s addictive qualities. Ralph Nader’s consumer-advocacy group demanded a ban on Darvon because of its alleged associations with suicides, overdoses, and misuse by addicts. Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, harshly criticized the sincerity of Lilly’s educational campaign and went so far as to recommend that Darvon and other propoxyphene products not be prescribed “unless there really isn’t an alternative, and then only with care.” The FDA charged that Lilly’s educational campaign actually amounted to ingenious marketing, in that Lilly sales representatives not only gave doctors educational material that emphasized the drug’s positive attributes but also conveniently left samples.

To the company’s dismay, Darvon was not the only drug to cause a controversy. Oraflex, the American version of Benoxa-profen, was withdrawn from the market in August 1982. Only one month after the FDA approved Oraflex, a British medical journal documented five cases of death due to jaundice in patients taking the drug. The FDA accused Lilly of suppressing “unfavorable research findings.” Initial warnings about the possibility of inconsequential side effects were later amended to include the threat of jaundice, but only after the company had already applied for FDA approval.

At a time when drug-regulation reform would have allowed companies to interpret the results of their own lab tests, the Oraflex controversy represented a major disaster. Furthermore, publicity for the drug, which was projected to be a $100 million seller (prescriptions for Oraflex increased by 194,000 in just one month), had been unwittingly distorted. Reports from outside the company had falsely claimed that the drug could cure arthritis.

On August 21, 1985, the Oraflex controversy culminated when the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against Lilly and Dr. William Ian H. Shedden, the former vice-president and chief medical officer of Lilly Research Laboratories. The Justice Department accused the defendants of failing to inform the government about four deaths and six illnesses related to Oraflex. Lilly pleaded guilty to 25 criminal counts, which resulted in a $25,000 fine. Shedden pleaded no contest to 15 criminal counts and was fined $15,000. All 40 counts were misdemeanors; there was no charge against Lilly of intentional deception.

Lilly was cited as a defendant in a lawsuit filed against drug manufacturers and distributors of diethylstilbestrol (DES). The drug, which was prescribed to pregnant women during the 1940s and 1950s to prevent miscarriages, caused vaginal cancer and related problems in the children of the patients. Lilly was the first and largest manufacturer of DES, and it was estimated that 40 percent of the drug came from Lilly production facilities. In 1981, a court ordered the company to pay $500,000 in damages to one plaintiff, and in 1985 Lilly was ordered to pay $400,000 to the first male seeking damages in a DES-related case. Other claims asked for damages totaling in the billions of dollars.

In the midst of these legal wranglings, chairperson and CEO Richard Wood began acquiring manufacturers of medical devices and diagnostic equipment. Lilly added both Physio-Control Corp. and Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc. through share exchanges in 1980 and 1984, respectively. Intec Systems Inc., a manufacturer of cardiac defibrilators, was acquired in 1985. Hybritech, a California diagnostic products company, was purchased for $350 million in 1986. Lilly added Devices for Vascular Intervention, Inc. and Pacific Biotech, Inc. in 1989 and 1990. These companies (along with Origin Medsystems, a 1992 acquisition) constituted Lilly’s Medical Devices and Diagnostics Division, which contributed about 20 percent of the pharmaceutical corporation’s annual revenues in the early 1990s. But even this new business interest had its problems, not the least of which was intense competition from Abbott Laboratories.

While Wood concentrated on these domestic acquisitions, Lilly’s competitors had expanded internationally, where two-thirds of the world’s pharmaceutical market awaited. And although Lilly’s top two drugs, Ceclor (an antibiotic) and Prozac (an antidepressant) were highly profitable, the company’s $1 billion annual investment in research and development did not yield any blockbuster new breakthroughs.

In 1991, Wood abdicated Lilly’s chief executive office and chose Vaughn D. Bryson, a longtime executive, as his successor. Lilly’s employees reportedly appreciated Bryson’s management style, which was much less formal than his predecessor. Unfortunately for Bryson, however, patent expirations, a dearth of new drugs, and general volatility in the pharmaceutical industry combined to thwart his stint at the top. The company lost over 30 percent of its market value during his 18-month tenure. Worse, the corporation recorded the first quarterly loss in its history in the fall of 1992. Wood, who had retained Lilly’s chairmanship, orchestrated a “boardroom revolt” to oust his protege in 1993.

In June of that year, Randall Tobias was selected CEO and chairperson. Unlike all his predecessors, Tobias was recruited from outside Lilly’s employee roster. The former vice-chairperson of American Telephone and Telegraph Co. had served on Lilly’s board since 1986 and was by his own admission inexperienced in Pharmaceuticals. Nonetheless, after just six months at Lilly’s helm, Tobias announced a reorganization of the venerable drug company.

His plan included divestment of the profitable, but distractive Medical Device and Diagnostics Division, through which he hoped to raise $550 million. A cost-reduction program included the elimination of 4,000 employees through early retirement. Tobias planned to use these savings to acquire the distributors needed in a pharmaceutical industry that was increasingly influenced by budget-conscious managed care organizations. In line with this focus, Lilly announced its plan to acquire PCS Health Systems Inc., America’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, from McKesson Corp. for $4 billion in mid-1994. Tobias, who had orchestrated AT&T’s overseas expansion, also worked to expand Lilly’s international sales from their 1993 level of about 39 percent of total revenues.

Tobias’ plan also focused Lilly’s research and development on five broad disease categories: central nervous system diseases, endocrine diseases (including diabetes and osteoporosis), infectious diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. In line with these strategic imperatives, Lilly looked forward to releasing Lys-Pro, a new type of insulin for the treatment of diabetes, in 1995, and olanzapine, indicated for schizophrenia, in 1996.

Principal Subsidiaries

Eli Lilly International Corporation; Eli Lilly Interamrica, Inc.; Eli Lilly de Centro America, S.A. (Guatemala); Eli Lilly Compania de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.; Dista Mexicana, S.A. de C.V.; EPCO; Eli Lilly Industries, Inc.; Eli Lilly & Company (Taiwan), Inc.; CBI Uniforms, Inc. (50%); ELCO Management Corp.; Eli Lilly S.A. (Switzerland).

Eli Lilly and Company

views updated May 23 2018

Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly Corporate Center
Indianapolis, Indiana 46285
U.S.A.
Telephone: (317) 276-2000
Fax: (317) 276-3492
Web site: http://www.lilly.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1881
Employees: 41,000
Sales: $11.54 billion (2001)
Stock Exchanges: New York Boston Cincinnati NASDAQ Philadelphia Basel Geneva Zurich Tokyo London
Ticker Symbol: LLY
NAIC: 325412 Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing; 339112 Surgical and Medical Instrument Manufacturing; 422210 Drugs and Druggists’ Sundries Wholesalers

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets ethical drugs (those requiring a doctor’s prescription) for a wide variety of human ailments. It has research and production facilities in many nations, and its products are sold in 159 countries. It introduced the world’s first commercial insulin in the 1920s, and in 2002 was the leading producer of products for those with diabetes. Its best-selling antidepressant, Prozac, continues to be a controversial drug, even though it lost its U.S. patent protection in 2001. Like many other large corporations, Lilly has numerous collaborations or joint ventures with other firms. As a major player in the pharmaceutical industry, Lilly has faced many controversies such as the high cost and advertising of prescription drugs. The company’s subsidiary Elanco Animal Health sells animal health products in over 100 countries.

Lilly’s Origins and Community Commitments: 1870S-1960S

Despite its huge domestic and international operations, Lilly continued to maintain a close allegiance to the U.S. Midwest and wielded significant influence in its native city. For instance, in 1971 Forbes magazine prepared a profile of the company, but because Lilly did not want the article published, an Indianapolis newspaper refused to sell Forbes photographs of the Lilly family.

Much of this community loyalty stemmed from Lilly’s long history of paternalism and generosity. In 1876, Colonel Eli Lilly, a Civil War veteran, built a laboratory in Indianapolis and began to manufacture ethical drugs. The business established itself successfully with the innovation of high-quality gelatincoated capsules, and it was not long before Colonel Lilly was able to serve Indianapolis in a variety of ways. He served as president of the Commercial Club to help in the development of the city and chaired a committee to help the indigent during the financial panic of 1893. He also donated his own personal funds to build a children’s hospital in memory of his 13-year-old daughter who died of diphtheria.

This civic consciousness was inherited by the second and third generation of Lilly management. During the Depression, the Colonel’s grandson, Eli Lilly, refused to lay off any employees. Instead, he had them help with general maintenance of the facility until they could return to their normal jobs.

The Lilly family in 1937 established the Lilly Endowment to provide financial support for educational, cultural, and religious institutions. The family donated $5 million worth of rare books to Indiana University, and later the Smithsonian Institution acquired a family coin collection worth $5.5 million. The endowment also funded new buildings, music schools, student centers, and laboratories in most colleges and universities in Indiana and in several other states.

Lilly also laid the foundations for its reputation for marketing ingenuity in those early years. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the company sent as much of its stock as it could to the disaster area at the request of sales personnel and wholesalers. Since then the ready availability of Lilly’s products was central to its marketing strategy. That and aggressive advertising campaigns, plus its large, eager sales force, have been the keys to its marketing success. Its sales marketing department was formally established around 1922.

Besides being a pioneer in pharmaceutical marketing, Lilly was known for its development of many important drugs. In the 1920s, Lilly began selling the world’s first commercially available insulin that would benefit millions with diabetes. In the years ahead it would remain the leading manufacturer of insulin, commanding at least 75 percent of the U.S. market in the early 1990s.

In the 1920s, the company produced a liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia. In the 1930s, Lilly laboratories synthesized barbituric acids, essential to the production of drugs used in surgery and obstetrics. In 1955 Lilly manufactured 60 percent of the Salk polio vaccine. But the company’s greatest contribution to human health was in production of penicillins and other antibiotics that revolutionized the treatment of disease.

Throughout this era of innovation and expansion and up until the late 1980s, Lilly’s management remained a constant. Every president and almost every member of the board of directors was either a direct descendant of Colonel Lilly or a native of the Midwest, if not of Indiana. After the colonel’s death in 1898, his son Josiah Lilly ran the company for the next 34 years. He was succeeded by son Eli and later by Josiah, Jr. During the 16-year presidency of Eli Lilly, sales rose from $13 million in 1932 to $117 million in 1948. After Eli relinquished his executive powers to his brother, he became the titular chairperson of the company. Upon his death at age 91, he had lived to see the company reach $1 billion in sales.

Business in the 1970s and 1980s

Josiah, Jr.’s presidency marked the last reign of a direct family descendant, followed by presidents Beesley, Beck, Wood, and Lake. Richard Wood, who advanced to the CEO position in 1973, was the third of seven company presidents to be an “outsider.” He was, of course, born and raised in Indiana and was a longtime Lilly employee.

In 1971 members and descendants of the Lilly family owned $1 billion of the $4 billion in company stock, while the Lilly Endowment (controlled by the family) owned another $900 million. Furthermore, the endowment resisted making large disbursements, and it was not until the 1969 Tax Reform Act that the endowment was forced to loosen its 25 percent hold on stock. Still, in 1979 the endowment continued to hold 18.6 percent of company shares.

Lilly’s conservative management paralleled the outspoken ideology of the Lilly Endowment, although the company and the endowment were separate and distinct organizations. During the 1960s, the Lilly Endowment professed a specific political mission. It supported anticommunism, free enterprise, and limited government. Despite what some have called an anachronistic approach to business, no one can dispute Lilly’s financial success.

While the rest of the drug industry in the 1970s was depressed, Lilly doubled in size. When the pharmaceutical business was hit hard by competition from generic drugs that flooded the marketplace after the expiration of patents for drugs discovered in the 1950s and 1960s, Lilly diversified into agricultural chemicals, animal-health products, medical instruments, and beauty-care products.

Meanwhile, Lilly increased its expenditure on research and development of Pharmaceuticals, spending $235 million in those areas in 1981 alone. The immediate result was three new drugs: Ceclor, an oral cephalosporin antibiotic; Dobutrex, a heart-failure treatment; and Mandol, an injectable cephalosporin effective against a broad spectrum of hospital-acquired infections. The release of the new cephalosporins represented a significant step for Lilly. The company had always been dominant in the antibiotic market, but competition from Merck, SmithKline, and foreign drug companies threatened Lilly’s supremacy. With the new drugs, the company was able to recapture hegemony of the cephalosporin market; of the $3.27 billion in company sales in 1985, $1.05 billion was from the sale of antibiotics.

A similar success story resulted after the company bought Elizabeth Arden for $38 million in 1971. At first glance, the purchase of the beauty-care company seemed an unwise move. Elizabeth Arden had been a money loser and continued to lose money for five years after Lilly acquired it. Lilly management seemed to have no idea of the intense competition in the beauty industry. But, in an unusual move, Lilly hired outsiders to fill its subsidiary’s top executive positions, and by 1982 Elizabeth Arden’s sales were up 90 percent from 1978, with profits doubling to nearly $30 million.

The introduction of several new drugs in the late 1970s and early 1980s increased Lilly’s sales and challenged the market boundaries of competing products. Lilly released Nulfon, an anti-inflammatory drug, to compete with Merck’s top selling Indocin. In addition, the company introduced Cinobac, an antibacterial agent used to treat urinary-tract infections; Eldisine, a treatment for childhood leukemia; Moxam, a potent new antibiotic licensed from Shionogi, a Japanese drug company; and Benoxaprofen, an antiarthritic introduced in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the company in 1982 introduced Humulin, the first healthcare product made from recombinant DNA technology. This breakthrough promised to protect Lilly’s majority share of the insulin market.

During this time, the initial flurry over the possible hazardous side effects of a popular analgesic called Darvon seemed to have subsided. Critics had charged that the drug introduced in 1957 was both ineffective and had the dangerous potential for abuse, but Lilly mounted an educational campaign on proper use of the drug and continued to hold 80 percent of the prescription analgesic market. Darvon generated annual sales of $100 million.

Company Perspectives:

Eli Lilly and Company creates and delivers innovative medicines that enable people to live longer, healthier and more active lives.

With a 19 percent increase in sales in 1978, a 24 percent return on equity, and impressive results from Wood’s foreign-market campaign, Lilly’s prospects seemed excellent. Then, however, company growth began to fall short of projected figures. In 1982, a miscalculation of inventory and expected sales caused Lilly to produce far more Treflan (a soybean herbicide) than it could sell. With the patents expiring on Treflan and two animal products, and with the overproduction of Treflan, income from agricultural products suddenly did not look as promising as it once had. Furthermore, profits from Moxam had to be shared with Shionogi, the Japanese partner in the joint venture. In addition, the patent on Keflin, an injectable cephalosporin that had been generating $100 million in sales, expired in November 1982.

Lilly’s diversification into medical instruments through the acquisition of IVAC Corporation, a manufacturer of systems that monitored vital signs and equipment for intravenous fluid infusion, and Cardiac Pacemaker, a manufacturer of heart pacemakers, cost Lilly $286 million in stock, a significant investment with an unknown potential for profits. Also, since the combined assets of its medical instrument subsidiaries and Elizabeth Arden represented only 20 percent of the entire company, their projected profits were not expected to have a substantial effect on company profits as a whole. Elizabeth Arden was, in fact, later sold to Fabergé, Inc. for $657 million in 1987.

Of more concern, however, was the re-emerging specter of Darvon’s addictive qualities. Ralph Nader’s consumer-advocacy group demanded a ban on Darvon because of its alleged associations with suicides, overdoses, and misuse by addicts. Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, harshly criticized the sincerity of Lilly’s educational campaign and went so far as to recommend that Darvon and other propoxyphene products not be prescribed unless there really was no alternative, and then only with care. The FDA charged that Lilly’s educational campaign actually amounted to ingenious marketing in that Lilly sales representatives not only gave doctors educational material that emphasized the drug’s positive attributes but also conveniently left samples. The result of this litigation was that Darvon was not removed from the market, and it was proven safe and effective when used as directed.

To the company’s dismay, Darvon was not the only drug to cause a controversy. Oraflex, the U.S. version of Benoxaprofen, was withdrawn from the market in August 1982. Only one month after the FDA approved Oraflex, a British medical journal documented five cases of death due to jaundice in patients taking the drug. The FDA accused Lilly of suppressing unfavorable research findings. Initial warnings about the possibility of inconsequential side effects were later amended to include the threat of jaundice, but only after the company had already applied for FDA approval. Package inserts were amended to recommend a reduced dosage for elderly patients.

At a time when drug-regulation reform would have allowed companies to interpret the results of their own lab tests, the Oraflex controversy represented a major disaster. Furthermore, publicity for the drug, which was projected to be a $100 million seller (prescriptions for Oraflex increased by 194,000 in just one month), had been unwittingly distorted. Reports from outside the company had falsely claimed that the drug could cure arthritis.

On August 21, 1985, the Oraflex controversy culminated when the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against Lilly and Dr. William Ian H. Shedden, the former vice-president and chief medical officer of Lilly Research Laboratories. The Justice Department accused the defendants of failing to inform the government about four deaths and six illnesses related to Oraflex. Lilly pleaded guilty to 25 criminal counts, which resulted in a $25,000 fine. Shedden pleaded no contest to 15 criminal counts and was fined $15,000. All 40 counts were misdemeanors; there was no charge against Lilly of intentional deception.

Key Dates:

1876:: Colonel Eli Lilly starts making ethical drugs in Indianapolis.
1881:: Company is incorporated.
1886:: Lilly hired its first scientist, Ernest Eberhardt, to establish one of the first pharmaceutical research and development programs.
1923:: Eli Lilly and Company begins selling Iletin, the first commercially available insulin.
1940s:: Lilly becomes one of the first companies to begin mass producing penicillin.
1950s:: Lilly introduces two important antibiotics: erythromycin and vancomycin.
1960s:: Lilly introduces cephalosporin antibiotics and anticancer drugs vincristine and vinblastine.
1971:: The company buys cosmetics manufacturer Elizabeth Arden.
1977:: IVAC Corporation is acquired.
1978:: Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. is acquired.
1980:: Company acquires Physio-Control Corporation.
1982:: Lilly introduces Humulin, the company’s human insulin and the first human-healthcare item made by recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering).
1987:: Eli Lilly sells Elizabeth Arden cosmetics business to Fabergé for $657 million.
1987:: FDA approves the use of Prozac for treating depression.
1996:: Zyprexa is introduced as a new treatment for schizophrenia.
1998:: Company dedicates its new laboratories for clinical research at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis.
1999:: Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. and Lilly launch Actos, an oral diabetes agent that acts as an insulin sensitizer.
2001:: Patent protection for Prozac ends in the United States, opening competition from generic versions.
2002:: Lilly becomes the fourth major drug company to offer big discounts for needy patients.

Lilly was cited as a defendant in a lawsuit filed against drug manufacturers and distributors of diethylstilbestrol (DES). The drug, which was prescribed to pregnant women during the 1940s and 1950s to prevent miscarriages, caused vaginal cancer and related problems in the children of the patients. Lilly was the first and largest manufacturer of DES, and it was estimated that 40 percent of the drug came from Lilly production facilities. In 1981, a court ordered the company to pay $500,000 in damages to one plaintiff, and in 1985 Lilly was ordered to pay $400,000 to the first male seeking damages in a DES-related case. Other claims asked for damages totaling in the billions of dollars.

In the early 1980s Lilly continued acquiring manufacturers of medical devices and diagnostic equipment. Lilly added both Physio-Control Corp. and Advanced Cardiovascular Systems Inc. through share exchanges in 1980 and 1984, respectively. Hybritech, a California diagnostic products company, was purchased for $350 million in 1986. Lilly added Devices for Vascular Intervention, Inc., and Pacific Biotech, Inc., in 1989 and 1990, respectively. These companies (along with Origin Medsystems, a 1992 acquisition) constituted Lilly’s Medical Devices and Diagnostics Division, which contributed about 20 percent of the pharmaceutical corporation’s annual revenues in the early 1990s. Heart Rhythm Technologies, Inc. was acquired in 1992. But even this new business interest had its problems, not the least of which was intense competition from Abbott Laboratories.

While Wood concentrated on these domestic acquisitions, Lilly’s competitors had expanded internationally, where twothirds of the world’s pharmaceutical market awaited. Although Lilly’s top two drugs, Ceclor (an antibiotic) and Prozac (an antidepressant introduced in 1987) were highly profitable, the company’s $1 billion annual investment in research and development did not yield any new blockbuster breakthroughs.

The 1990s and the New Millennium

By the beginning of the decade, the company’s star antidepressant Prozac had become a major medical, legal, and social controversy. Many reported relief from the sufferings of depression. About two million individuals worldwide had taken the drug by the summer of 1990. However, some said Prozac caused them to become suicidal. Lawsuits were filed and some politicians argued that their opponents were unstable because they took Prozac. Those who thought they were hurt by Prozac formed support groups in several states, while Lilly and the FDA continued to defend the drug’s usefulness and safety. Eventually several books were written about the pros and cons of using drugs such as Prozac to treat depression and other mental illnesses.

In 1991, Wood abdicated Lilly’s chief executive office and chose Vaughn D. Bryson, a longtime executive, as his successor. Lilly’s employees reportedly appreciated Bryson’s management style, which was much less formal than that of his predecessor. Unfortunately for Bryson, however, patent expirations, a dearth of new drugs, and general volatility in the pharmaceutical industry combined to thwart his stint at the top. The company lost over 30 percent of its market value during his 18 month tenure. Worse, the corporation recorded the first quarterly loss in its history in the fall of 1992. Wood, who had retained Lilly’s chairmanship, orchestrated a boardroom revolt to oust his protégé in 1993.

In June of that year, Randall Tobias was selected CEO and chairperson. Unlike all his predecessors, Tobias was recruited from outside Lilly’s employee roster. The former vice-chairman of American Telephone and Telegraph Co. had served on Lilly’s board since 1986 and was by his own admission inexperienced in pharmaceuticals. Nonetheless, after just six months at Lilly’s helm, Tobias announced a reorganization of the venerable drug company.

His plan included divestment of the profitable, but distractive, Medical Device and Diagnostics Division, through which he hoped to raise $550 million. A cost-reduction program included the elimination of 4,000 employees through early retirement. Tobias planned to use these savings to acquire the distributors needed in a pharmaceutical industry that was increasingly influenced by budget-conscious managed care organizations. In line with this focus, Lilly announced its plan to acquire PCS Health Systems Inc., America’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, from McKesson Corp. for $4 billion in mid-1994. Tobias, who had orchestrated AT&T’s overseas expansion, also worked to expand Lilly’s international sales from their 1993 level of about 39 percent of total revenues.

Tobias’s plan also focused Lilly’s research and development on five broad disease categories: central nervous system diseases, endocrine diseases (including diabetes and osteoporosis), infectious diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. In line with these strategic imperatives, Lilly in 1995 released Lys-Pro, a new type of insulin for the treatment of diabetes, in 1995, and Zyprexa (olanzapine), indicated for schizophrenia, in 1996.

In 1996 the FDA approved Lilly’s Gemzar as the nation’s first drug to treat pancreatic cancer. Two years later the FDA approved using Gemzar for nonsmall-cell lung cancer. According to the company’s web site, in 2002 over 85 countries had approved Gemzar and almost 80 percent of U.S. patients with pancreatic cancer used Gemzar.

In 1997 the FDA authorized using Evista to help prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Evista sales in 2000 of $552 million made it one of the company’s major products. Other new products were Humalog, a human insulin analog, and ReoPro, a cardiovascular product discovered and developed by Centocor.

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997 eased rules on mass media advertising for prescription drugs, Lilly and others in the pharmaceutical industry increased their spending on TV spots. Lilly spent $7 million in direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotionals in 1999. The following year $46.5 million was spent, mostly for Prozac as the end of its patent protection neared.

Although the evidence was not conclusive, television ads in particular were linked to increasing consumer sales, but perhaps with a hidden cost. “The issues raised by DTC advertising are serious,” said health policy researcher Steven Findlay in Marketing Health Services in spring 2000. “They touch upon questions of public health, corporate responsibility, advertising ethics, and consumers’ capacity to understand complex medical and pharmaceutical information.”

In August 2001 Lilly lost U.S. patent protection for Prozac after a series of legal conflicts. At that point Barr Laboratories gained a six-month exclusive right to make a generic Prozac equivalent. Declining Prozac sales in the fourth quarter of 2001 led to a 14 percent reduction in company revenues. In January 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Lilly’s final patent appeal without comment, which opened the door to several other companies making generic versions of the antidepressant drug. Thus ended a major chapter in Lilly’s history.

The same month the federal government settled an investigation of Lilly violating its own privacy policies by releasing email addresses of over 600 Prozac patients. According to the New York Times, the “case is the first the Federal Trade Commission has pursued over suspected unintentional violation of a Web site’s privacy policies.”

Lilly reported $10.86 billion in net sales and $3.05 billion in net income in 2000, both figures up from $10.0 billion in net sales and $2.72 billion in net income the previous year. There was a significant change in the source of its income. In 1996 Prozac accounted for 34 percent of its net sales, but that declined to 24 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, its newer products (Zyprexa, Evista, Actos, Humalog, Gemzar, and ReoPro) increased to bring in 41 percent of all 2000 sales. Zyprexa, approved for schizophrenia and the acute manic phase of bipolar conditions, in the fourth quarter of 2000 surpassed Prozac as the company’s number one selling product, with over $2 billion in 2000 sales. In 2000 the company listed 30 trademarked Pharmaceuticals on its web site. A few of those were trademarked by other companies that Lilly worked with in joint operations.

In December 2001 Lilly had several new products that it planned to launch by 2004. They included Forteo to reverse osteoporosis, Cialis for male erectile dysfunction, Atomexetine to treat attention deficit disorder, Duloxetine for depression and urinary incontinence, an olanzipine and fluoxetine combination to fight depression, Alimta to treat a form of lung cancer called mesothelioma, and a PKC beta inhibitor to treat diabetic eye problems. Lilly expected that these and several other products in the pipeline would keep the company prosperous in the years to come.

Principal Subsidiaries

Eli Lilly International Corporation; Eli Lilly Interamrica, Inc.; Eli Lilly de Centro America, S.A. (Guatemala); Eli Lilly Compania de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.; Dista Mexicana, S.A. de C.V.; EPCO; Eli Lilly Industries, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan), Inc.; CBI Uniforms, Inc. (50%); ELCO Management Corp.; Eli Lilly S.A. (Switzerland); Elanco Animal Health; Sphinx Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Control Diabetes SVC; Lilly ICOS LLC.

Principal Competitors

GlaxoSmithKline; Pfizer Inc.; Novo Nordisk.

Eli Lilly and Company

views updated Jun 27 2018

Eli Lilly and Company

founded: 1876

Contact Information:

headquarters: lilly corporate center
indianapolis, indiana 46285 phone: (317)276-2000 fax: (317)277-6579 toll free: (800)545-5979 url: http://www.lilly.com

OVERVIEW

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, and incorporated in 1901, Eli Lilly and Company is probably best known for introducing the world to Prozac, a pharmaceutical treatment for clinical depression. However, the organization boasts a large portfolio of products. Eli Lilly and Company is a global, research-based company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells products in a large business segment called Pharmaceutical Products. It stresses innovation in its laboratories located around the world. Through its research division, Lilly Research Laboratories, the company discovers, develops, and evaluates therapies and products to help diagnose, prevent, and treat human diseases. The company also manufactures and sells animal health products. All of Lilly's products are sold in approximately 160 countries.

COMPANY FINANCES

In 2001, Eli Lilly's net sales rose 6 percent to $11.54 billion, but its net income fell 8 percent to $2.81 billion. Company earnings were significantly affected by higher research and development expenses and $311.9 million in acquired in-process R&D and asset impairment charges. A substantial portion of its revenues came from increased sales of the products Zyprexa, Evista, Gemzar, Humalog and Actos.

ANALYSTS' OPINIONS

Among the new drugs that Eli Lilly has produced in the last five years, observers speculate that the company could have at least 15 potential "megasellers" including its already established best-sellers. Analysts and investors expressed concerns about Lilly's Prozac problem. In 2001, a, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Lilly would have to cede its Prozac patent in 12 months, rather than in late 2003, as Lilly had hoped. The decision caused the company's stock to drop by almost a third in one day (to $75 a share), which erased a whopping $36.8 billion in equity. A month later, the stock bottomed out at $66. But because of the new products Eli Lilly researchers have been developing, analysts are expecting that annual earnings should increase by 17 percent as profits begin to show in the beginning of 2003. This will put Eli Lilly's profits back up in the double-digit figures. Lilly was expected to only show a 4 percent profit in 2001. As a result, shares of Lilly stock rose to $76. Observers feel that Lilly's prospects look positive.

HISTORY

Before he founded Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1876, Colonel Eli Lilly had already tried to launch several unsuccessful business ventures. When he started his pharmaceutical company, he found the right formula. From the outset, his goals were to make pharmaceutical products of the highest possible quality, develop only medicines that would be prescribed by physicians, and to base his products on the best scientific knowledge. A veteran of the American Civil War, Colonel Lilly was 38 years old at the time. He was motivated by a frustration with the inadequate medicines then available. From the start, the business flourished, a testimony to Colonel Lilly's continual quality improvement. The company would soon develop an excellent reputation. Consumers not only respected the quality of the products; they respected the quality of the man as well. Colonel Lilly was seen as a generous man with community spirit.

In 1886, Lilly implemented a novel pharmaceutical research program when he hired a chemist, Ernest Eber-hard, who would perform as a full-time scientist to test the quality of products. Eberhard was one of the first graduates of a new pharmacy program at Purdue University. The move would prove significant, as it helped establish what would become a company tradition: dedication to quality and the discovery and development of new and better pharmaceuticals.

Later, Colonel Lilly would bring his family into the business. His two grandsons, Eli Lilly and Josiah K. Lilly Jr., both served as president of the company, forging their own management styles that contributed to the organization's ongoing success. The grandsons were instrumental in helping to establish company policies that regarded employees as its most valuable asset—a philosophy that many U.S. corporations would not adopt until well into the twentieth century.

From these roots the company grew to become a world leader in pharmaceutical-based, integrated health care. Into the next century, the company's history was marked by innovation and achievement. In the 1920s, Lilly's researchers worked with Frederick Banting and Charles Best of the University of Toronto to isolate and purify insulin to treat diabetes. At the time, diabetes was a fatal disease. In 1923, Lilly provided a treatment option where none had existed before when it introduced Iletin, the world's first commercially available insulin product. During the same period, the company started a research program to find a treatment for pernicious anemia. This resulted in the introduction of a liver-extract product that became standard therapy for the disorder. The researchers who developed the product received a Nobel Prize for their efforts.

Developments continued as the century progressed. In the 1940s, Lilly was one of the first companies to develop a way to mass-produce penicillin. In the 1950s, it introduced vancomycin, an antibiotic that treats patients suffering from serious hospital infections associated with resistant bacteria. The company also introduced erythromycin, an antibiotic that proved vital to patients allergic to penicillin.

During the next decade, Lilly launched a line of oral and injectable antibiotics in a new class called cephalosporins. It also introduced two anti-cancer drugs, vincristine and vinblastine. In the 1970s, it launched Ceclor, which would become the world's best-selling oral antibiotic, and Dobutrex, a cardiovascular product.

In the 1980s, Lilly engineered a breakthrough in diabetes treatment when it developed Humulin, insulin that was identical to that produced by the human body. Introduced in 1982, it was the world's first human-healthcare product created with recombinant DNA technology. Lilly later used the same technology when it developed Humatrope, a therapy for growth hormone deficiency in children. In 1988, it produced perhaps its best known product when it developed Prozac, the first drug of its kind to treat clinical depression.

Eli Lilly continued to innovate as the century drew to a close. In the 1990s, Lilly introduced Gemzar, a drug to treat pancreatic and non-small-cell lung cancer; ReoPro, a cardiovascular drug that prevents blood clots following certain heart procedures; Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia; Humalog, a highly improved insulin product; and Evista, the first of a new class of drugs used for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. In 1999, working with Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd., Lilly successfully introduced the oral anti-diabetes agent Actos.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, the appointment of Sidney Taurel would have a great impact on the organization. Taurel became chief executive officer in July 1998 and chairman of the board of directors in 1999. Taurel had been president and chief operating officer since February 1996 and a member of the Lilly board of directors since July 1991. He is chairman of the company's policy committee and senior management forum.

STRATEGY

Beginning with Colonel Lilly's initial vision, the strategy of Eli Lilly and Company has been to apply the latest research and encourage scientific collaboration toward the development of new product. This tact fostered innovation, led to the company's continually growing portfolio of products, and contributed greatly to its success. The company also strived to identify and understand the world's most pressing medical needs. Research has been its focal point, as the company has established major research and development facilities in nine countries and conducts clinical trials for its drugs in more than 30 countries.

Lilly also attributes a great deal of its success to the development and adherence to a core set of values, which include respecting people (both its customers and its employees, as well as its business associates and communities) and maintaining integrity in all elements of its enterprises. It has dedicated itself to the pursuit of excellence, and it seeks ways to continually improve its business and, thus, its products. Along the way the company developed a two-fold purpose: to save lives and to cut overall healthcare costs.

Those purposes are integrated into its specific strategic initiatives. To help save lives, Eli Lilly uses new technology as a driving force in the discovery of new drugs. Believing that the latest technologies provide the key to understanding, treatment, and cure of diseases, the company seeks out and applies advances such as genomics, combinatorial chemistry, molecular biology, and informatics. To help cut healthcare costs, and thus make its products more available to the people who need them most, it employs access and cost-containment measures.

As part of its future direction, Eli Lilly will continue exploring strategic partnerships with academic research institutions and biotechnology firms. This, the company feels, enables it to apply new technologies in the production of new and better drugs.

INFLUENCES

Eli Lilly and Company's stated goal is to become the industry's "partner of choice." To this end, it has committed itself to establishing relationships with third parties to supplement and enhance its internal capabilities, and it aggressively seeks to establish strategic alliances toward the development and marketing of new products. The intent is to create mutually beneficial relationships for both Lilly and its partners.

So far, the company has become involved in more than 140 research and development collaborations with leading companies and universities. Collaboration has been a company hallmark since the 1920s when it partnered with the University of Toronto to introduce insulin to the market.

One recent significant collaboration involved Takeda Pharmaceuticals of America that resulted, in 1999, in the successful launching of Takeda's oral anti-diabetes agent Actos, a therapy for the treatment of Type II diabetes. Current collaborations include a partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Working with this company, Eli Lilly is seeking a treatment for chronic infection caused by the hepatitis C virus, a potentially deadly disease. Eli Lilly is also collaborating with Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to pursue treatments for hepatitis C. Together with Stanford University, Eli Lilly has formed the Lilly/Stanford Program for Excellence in Hepatitis Research, which brings together the world's leading experts in the area of hepatitis research.

Eli Lilly continues to encourage pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations to contact the company for possible collaborations that could lead to potential products or new research technologies. This approach is in keeping with the company's philosophy of "research without walls," which means that it seeks out the latest in science and technology from external and internal sources.

CURRENT TRENDS

When Sidney Taurel took over as CEO of Eli Lilly and Company in 1998, he immediately sought to increase the company's new drug development by increasing the research and development budget by 30 percent (or $2.2 billion). As part of this plan, he hired 700 scientists in the span of one year. Further, he told the company's researchers not to pursue the development of any drug that would seem likely to create less than $500 million in annual sales. This strategy resulted in the creation of numerous new and highly marketable drugs.

FAST FACTS: About Eli Lilly and Company

Ownership: Eli Lilly and Company is a publicly owned company traded on the New York, London, and Canadian Stock Exchanges.

Ticker Symbol: LLY

Officers: Sidney Taurel, Chmn, CEO, and Pres., 62, 2000 salary $6,100,000; Charles Golden, CFO, EVP, Dir., 54, 2000 salary $2,400,000; August Watanabe, MD, EVP Science & Technology, 59, 2000 salary $2,400,000; John Lechleiter, EVP Pharmaceutical Products and Corporate Development, 47; Gerhard Mayr, EVP Pharmaceutical Operations, 54, 2000 salary $2,200,000

Employees: 35,000

Principal Subsidiary Companies: Lilly has subdivisions and facilities in 18 countries. Its research division, Lilly Research Laboratories, is responsible for the discovery, development, and clinical evaluation of pharmaceutical products. Research and development locations in the United States include four sites in Indiana and a subdivision in North Carolina, as well as international facilities in eight countries. Also, the company markets animal health care products through its division called Elanco Animal Health. Division facilities are located in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific area and Latin America.

Chief Competitors: Eli Lilly's major competitors include companies in the healthcare sector and drug manufacturing industry. Some of its primary competitors include Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis, Pfizer Inc., and Wyeth.

Research and development has always been an integral part of the company's success. Colonel Lilly himself once described research as "the heart of the business, the soul of the enterprise." The company has held to that stance in the twentieth century and its sees no reason to alter this line of thinking in the twenty first century. Today, the company is recognized as one of the industry leaders in research and development. Its all-important research division, Lilly Research Laboratories, includes more 6,000 employees working in a variety of scientific disciplines, and the company invests substantial sums of money into research. In 1999, it spent approximately $1.8 billion in the development of new medicines. In 2000, it increased that figure to $2 billion.

PRODUCTS

Eli Lilly and Company's main products are pharmaceuticals designed to treat patients and reduce total health care costs. Specifically, through its pharmaceuticals, the company strives to eliminate the need for surgery and hospitalization, and to slow, reverse, or prevent disease. The company focuses research in the areas of neuroscience, endocrinology, infectious diseases, oncology, and cardiovascular diseases. In recent years, it has introduced new and successful drugs to treat cancer, schizophrenia, osteoporosis, diabetes, and cardiovascular complications.

Eli Lilly's neuroscience products include the well-known Prozac, a treatment for clinical depression; Zyprexa, for treatment of schizophrenia and acute bipolar mania; Darvon, a line of analgesic products; Permax, a treatment for Parkinson's disease; and Sarafem, for the treatment of pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder. Endocrine products include Humulin, human insulin produced through recombinant DNA technology; Humalog, an injectable human insulin analog of recombinant DNA origin; Iletin, animal-source insulin; Actos, an oral agent for Type II diabetes; Evista, for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women; and Humatrope, a human growth hormone produced by recombinant DNA technology. Products to treat infectious disease include the oral antibiotics: Ceclor, Dynabac, Keflex, Keftab and Lorabid. They also include the injectable antibiotics: Vancocin HCl, Nebcin, Tazidime, Kefurox and Kefzol. Cardiovascular products include ReoPro, an antibody product for use as an adjunct to percutaneous coronary intervention; Dobutrex, an agent for cardiac decompensation and Cynt, for treatment of hyper-tension. Oncology products include Gemzar, for treatment of pancreatic cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer; Oncovin, for treatment of acute leukemia and advanced cancers; Velban, used in a variety of cancers; Eldisine, for treatment of acute childhood leukemia, and Axid, an antiulcer agent.

Eli Lilly produces animal health products through its division called Elanco Animal Health. The products are marketed primarily to cattle, poultry, and swine producers, and are sold throughout the world. The current product line focuses on four therapeutic classes including: antibacterials, parasiticides, anticoccidials, and productivity enhancers. Products include Tylan, an antibiotic used to control certain diseases in cattle, swine, and poultry, and to improve feed efficiency and growth, and Rumensin, a cattle feed additive that improves feed efficiency and growth. The portfolio also includes Coban, Monteban, and Maxiban, which are anticoccidial agents for use in poultry. Other products include Apralan, an antibiotic used to control enteric infections in calves and swine; Micotil and Pulmotil, antibiotics used to treat respiratory disease in cattle and swine; Surmax, a performance-enhancer for swine and poultry, and Paylean, a leanness and performance enhancer for swine.

CHRONOLOGY: Key Dates for Eli Lilly & Company

1876:: Eli Lilly and Company is founded in Indianapolis, Indiana by Colonel Eli Lilly
1886:: Lilly implements a first-ever pharmaceutical research program
1923:: Lilly introduces the world's first commercially available insulin product
1982:: Lilly introduces Humulin, insulin that is identical to that produced by the human body
1988:: Lilly introduces Prozac, the first drug of its kind
1998:: Sidney Taurel becomes CEO
1999:: Lilly collaborateswith Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd., to produce the oral antidiabetes agent Actos

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

Eli Lilly takes a strong pro-environmental stance. It has adopted environmental quality indicators that include, among many others, organic solvent emissions as a percent of usage, water and energy usage, global warming emissions and acidification potential emissions (CO2 and SO2), and waste generation. It also tracks the number and amount of fines imposed by government agencies for environmental deviations, and the number of complaints from the public registered for environmental concerns.

As part of its community service initiatives, the company has established the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, a non-profit corporation made possible by the profits of Eli Lilly and Company. It is the major source of the company's support for non-profit organizations. For its employees it has set up community involvement opportunities including the "Now for the Future Program," an educational program that seeks volunteers to acts as tutor/mentors for young people ages 10 to 17; and a crisis and suicide intervention service, that uses volunteer clinical associates to staff a 24-hour telephone hotline.

GLOBAL PRESENCE

Eli Lilly has research and development facilities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and the United States. It conducts clinical research in approximately 70 countries around the world. Manufacturing facilities are located in Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Spain, Taiwan, and the United States. It operates 14 administrative, research and development, and manufacturing plants in the United States and Puerto Rico.

HEALTHY HERBS

Eli Lilly and company has come a long way from its modest beginning to human insulin production, recombinant DNA technology, and human growth hormones. The company's very first products, produced by Colonel Lilly himself, were herbal preparations extracted from Bear's Foot, Black Haw, Cramp Bark, Hardhack, Life Root, Skullcap, Sea Wrack, Squaw Vine, Wahoo, and Wormseed.

EMPLOYMENT

Eli Lilly and Company has often been recognized as one of the top employers in the United States. For three years (1999-2001), it was selected by Forbes magazine as one of the country's "100 Best Companies to Work For." In making the selection, the magazine cited the company's many employee benefits, including a stock-option grant program and on-site child-care centers. Lilly also provides its employees with career path development. Eli Lilly actively encourages employees to enhance their skills, look for learning opportunities, and explore career opportunities within the company.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Bibliography

arndt, michael. "eli lilly: life after prozac." business week online, 23 july 2001. available at http://www.businessweek.com.

biospace.com. "eli lilly and company new from the biospace beat" biospace news, 2002. available at http://www.biospace.com.

hamilton, joan. "interneuron is listening to prozac." signals magazine, 19 january 1998. available at http://www.signalsmag.com.

lilly.com. "lilly makes magazine list again as top employer in the united states." lilly newsroom, 23 january 2002. available at http://newsroom.lilly.com/news/story.

petersen, lynn, betsy porter, and jitesh tank. "a day in the life: eli lilly." themsj.com, 1 april 2002. available at http://www.themsj.com.

yahoo! finance. "eli lilly & company." yahoo market guide, 28 march 2002. available at http://biz.yahoo.com.

For an annual report:

on the internet at: http://www.lilly.com/about/investor.

For additional industry research:

investigate companies by their standard industrial classification codes, also known as sics. eli lilly and company's primary sic is:

2834 pharmaceutical preparations

also investigate companies by their north american industrial classification system codes, also known as naics codes. eli lilly and company's primary naics code is:

325412 pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing

Company Profiles for Students

Eli Lilly and Company

views updated May 29 2018

Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly Corporate Ctr.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46285
USA
Telephone: (317) 276-2000
Fax: (317) 277-6579
Web site: www.lilly.com

PROZAC PRINT CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

Since its introduction in 1987, Prozac's sales had boomed, generating significant revenue for its manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company. But the success of this new type of antidepressant—a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI)—soon spawned intense competition in the $4 billion per year antidepressant market. By mid-1996 Prozac's sales growth was slowing, and drugs such as Zoloft and Paxil were eating into its market share. In response, Lilly initiated a new advertising campaign for Prozac in 1997. The campaign was a radical shift in Lilly's marketing strategies for the little green pill. Instead of focusing solely on convincing doctors of the benefits of Prozac for their patients, Lilly reached out directly to consumers for the first time. The Prozac print campaign, which appeared in over 20 general-interest magazines, targeted both adults who suffered from depression and those who shared their lives. The ads used visual metaphors to describe the experience of depression and subsequent recovery through effective treatment and were designed most specifically to reach those who were depressed but had not sought any form of medical assistance.

Lilly selected the Chicago-based advertising firm of Leo Burnett USA to help spread the message to consumers that "Prozac Can Help." The original ad was a three-page magazine spread that featured sharply contrasting images portraying the darkness experienced by a person suffering from depression and the light that a patient felt when the illness abated. The first page consisted of a gray cloud on a black background accompanied by the line "Depression Hurts." The opposite page was a vibrant blue with a highly stylized drawing of a yellow sun captioned with the campaign's signature line: "Prozac Can Help." Beneath both pictures were six paragraphs of text that described some of the symptoms of depression. The final paragraph encouraged readers to seek medical care if their symptoms matched those described in the ad and closed by stating that "Prozac has been prescribed for more than 17 million Americans. Chances are someone you know is feeling sunny again because of it. Prozac. Welcome back." The third page contained the disclosure information and product warnings mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In the months following the publication of the initial ad, Lilly released two companion ads. Each featured the same text, and all were thematically similar. One of the new ads substituted a broken vase and a vase holding flowers for the gray cloud and the yellow sun of the original ad. The other, which ran only in November and December 1997, displayed a limp Christmas tree on one page and a sturdy, upright tree on the opposite page.

Although the actual execution of the campaign was the work of Leo Burnett, the creative inspiration for the images came from focus groups conducted with depressed patients. Not only did Lilly and Burnett use these groups to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed campaigns, but the companies actually used ideas generated by the patients themselves. After having patients draw the "experience of depression and recovery," Burnett used this raw material to design the final campaign.

Although the Prozac print campaign received some criticism for its efforts to influence potential consumers directly, many others praised the campaign for removing some of the stigma attached to depression and mental illness in general. Lilly pronounced itself pleased with the results and doubled its advertising budget for 1998 in order to expand the campaign.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Eli Lilly introduced Prozac in 1987. The antidepressant immediately revolutionized the treatment of depression. As the first SSRI, Prozac acted to increase the available levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Not only did the medication have fewer side effects than older classes of antidepressants such as tricyclics, but it also worked remarkably well. By 1996 Prozac had been prescribed to more than 17 million Americans and had achieved $2.36 billion in sales worldwide. It was used to treat bulimia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as depression. Since Prozac accounted for 29 percent of Lilly's sales by the fourth quarter of 1997, the drug was quite important to Lilly's continued success.

By the mid-1990s, however, the astronomical growth of Prozac sales had begun to taper off. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "sales were no longer growing at previous levels." Lilly's drug met increasing competition from more recently introduced SSRIs, which eroded Prozac's dominance of the antidepressant market. Analysts were also predicting that the burgeoning anti-depressant market—which by 1996 was expanding by almost 33 percent annually—would become saturated by the turn of the century. Furthermore, Lilly's exclusive patent on Prozac was to expire in 2003, at which time generic makers could enter the field, a development that would greatly reduce the drug's profitability.

In light of these changes, Lilly recognized the necessity of revamping its advertising strategy. Traditionally the company had marketed Prozac in two ways, both of which centered on physicians. The company maintained a vast sales force that traveled "door-to-door" to doctors' offices. The sales representatives met with both primary care physicians and psychiatrists to explain the benefits of prescribing the medication to their patients and handed out free samples. Lilly also advertised in professional medical journals in hopes of swaying more doctors to prescribe Prozac for depressed patients. Increasingly, though, Lilly—like others in the pharmaceutical industry—realized the incredible potential in targeting patients directly.

TARGET MARKET

The campaign was intended to reach depressed adults and the people closest to them. By 1997 17.5 million Americans suffered from depression, according to Med Ad News. Depression, however, was a seriously underdiagnosed and undertreated illness. Eli Lilly claimed that two out of every three depressed individuals did not receive treatment. By targeting those who were reluctant to seek professional help for their symptoms, the campaign attempted to appeal to a substantial number of people. Victoria Murphy, a spokesperson for Eli Lilly, explained her company's strategy to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "The goal is very simple: to encourage people suffering from depression to get into treatment."

By expanding its advertising focus to include depressed people who had not yet tried its medication, Lilly hoped to see its Prozac sales rise. Mike Grossman, Director of Public Relations for Leo Burnett, saw his project as one of "assisting people in their depressed stupor to raise their hand for help … [T]hey might not recognize their condition or know that help is out there." In order to do so, however, the campaign had to overcome the stigma that surrounded depression and other mental illnesses. The wording of the ads' text was carefully selected to describe the symptoms of depression in a nonthreatening way: "So you may have trouble sleeping. Feel unusually sad or irritable. Find it hard to concentrate. Lose your appetite. Lack energy. Or have trouble feeling pleasure…." The ads also sought to dispel some of the prevalent misconceptions and fears about depression. "[I]t isn't just feeling down. It's a real illness with real causes…. Some people think you can just will yourself out of a depression. That's not true." Grossman summed up Burnett's goal for the ads' text: "We wanted it to be dignified."

Because the visual elements of the advertisements were inspired by patients' illustrations of their own feelings about depression and recovery, the campaign clearly intended to connect with depressed readers (or their family members and friends) on an emotional level. The simple yet powerful symbols of darkness and light were developed to be inclusive. "We wanted patients and depressed people to be able to respond to the ads," said Grossman.

COMPETITION

Eli Lilly's strategy of appealing directly to consumers indicated that the company had "decided to fend off competition from other drug companies by going over doctors' heads and targeting patients," the Chicago Sun-Times reported. By expanding its potential market, Eli Lilly was attempting to reinvigorate flagging sales. When it was first released, Prozac was the only medication of its kind. Both doctors and patients appreciated the drug's ability to combat depression effectively, in many cases without causing disruptive or dangerous side effects. Over time, though, Prozac's solitary reign ended. Other pharmaceutical companies began to create and market their own SSRIs. Smith Kline Beecham's Paxil and Pfizer's Zoloft competed head-to-head against Prozac in the "modern antidepressant" category. Other SSRIs joined the increasingly crowded field. Effexor, manufactured by American Home Products Corp., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's Serzone began to encroach on Prozac's territory. In addition, the older tricyclic family of antidepressants continued to be readily prescribed by doctors. Even nonprescription remedies for depression gained adherents. Hypericum, a derivative of the St. John's wort plant, was touted as the "natural Prozac."

By July 1997 Prozac commanded less than 50 percent of the $4 billion market for "modern antidepres-sants" that it had previously dominated. Zoloft, introduced in 1992, was gaining in popularity and had captured nearly one-third of this market. In 1997 Zoloft's global sales grew to $1.51 billion, while third-ranked Paxil topped $1.45 billion. Prozac's sales for that year totaled $2.56 billion. Recognizing these developments, the Wall Street Journal Europe declared in 1996 that "the king of antidepressants is under attack." Claiming that its medication had fewer side effects than Prozac, Pfizer marketed Zoloft aggressively. Indeed, Pfizer's sales force outmaneuvered Lilly's, visiting almost 70,000 more doctors' offices in 1996 than the Lilly team. In the process, Pfizer's sales representatives passed out many Zoloft samples to these physicians, who in turn dispensed them to depressed patients. Pfizer also placed advertisements in medical journals that implicitly reminded doctors of Prozac's drawbacks, especially the fact that it was reputed to provoke anxiety in some patients. "Consider Safety. Consider Effectiveness. Consider Zoloft …," the ads suggested. The fact that Pfizer priced Zoloft 20 percent below Prozac also contributed to that drug's rapid rise by attracting cost-cutting Health Maintenance Organizations.

While its market dominance was being eroded, Lilly, like a number of other drug companies, took notice of a new development in medical advertising. Rogaine (an anti-hair loss product) and Nicoderm (a smoking cessation aid) had realized tremendous gains in profitability thanks to direct-to-consumer television campaigns run in 1994. These campaigns sparked a broader trend toward direct-to-consumer marketing of an array of pharmaceutical products. Peter Labadie of William-Labadie Advertising told the Chicago Tribune that this shift "started with hair replacement products. Marketers felt that advertising was moving the products." Thus, in addition to increasing its sales force and promoting Prozac more strongly to primary care physicians, Lilly embarked on its own direct-to-consumer print campaign in an effort to outflank its competitors. This was the first such effort that Lilly had made on behalf of Prozac. At the time, it was also the largest direct-to-consumer campaign for a "modern antidepressant." American Home Products Corp. had run a regional campaign for Effexor that featured tributes to the powers of the medication ("I got my marriage back," declared one), but Lilly's Prozac campaign appeared nationwide.

PEPPERMINT PROZAC

Shortly after the introduction of the direct-to-consumer print campaign, Lilly also brought out a liquid Prozac. The company claimed that this peppermint flavored product was targeted at elderly patients who could not swallow the pill version. Critics such as author/columnist Arianna Huffington, however, claimed that the company was trying to reach a far younger audience by using "child-like" graphics in its ads.

MARKETING STRATEGY

After Eli Lilly chose Leo Burnett to create its direct-to-consumer campaign, the ad agency devised a number of possible ads. The one that was best received by patients in Lilly focus groups was, not surprisingly, the series partially inspired by the experiences of patients. The dual metaphorical images of dark and light accurately expressed to them what depression and a return to health felt like. Lilly also sought input from doctors and mental health advocacy groups before releasing the original ad to the public.

In order to reach a large and varied group of people, Lilly chose to run the campaign in general-interest magazines with wide circulations. The ad first appeared in 20 such publications, including Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Newsweek, Time, Parade Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. In keeping with data indicating that the incidence of depression among women was twice as high as that among men, the magazine list was "skewed toward women," according to Grossman. As Med Ad News pointed out, women accounted for 60 percent of doctor visits and were twice as likely as men to request a specific brand of medication.

Lilly selected a print medium in part because of limitations that the FDA had placed on direct-to-consumer television ads. Regulations in force at the time prohibited pharmaceutical companies from drawing an explicit connection between a medical condition and a medication. Print ads, which were not circumscribed by such restrictions, were therefore a better way for Lilly to convey its message to consumers. Moreover, consumers had more time to reflect on a print ad then on a 30-second television spot, which was ideal for Lilly's purposes. Indeed, according to the Indianapolis Star, the ad encouraged the reader to muse actively over symptoms. As Gary Mitchell, a professor at the Indiana University Medical Center, told the Indianapolis Star, "You're on Paxil and you see the Prozac ad, and ask yourself, 'Why am I not on that drug?' "

OUTCOME

Although it is difficult to correlate sales increases to the campaign, Lilly expressed pleasure with the results. In fact, the company announced to Health News Daily that it was doubling its 1998 advertising budget in order to obtain "a full year effect" from the campaign. Industry analyst Myron Holubiak took a clearer stance on the effect of advertising in The Commercial Appeal: "That drug companies are creating a demand through consumer advertising can be proven, and physicians will prescribe drugs their patients ask for." Prozac's sales rose 9 percent in 1997 to reach $2.56 billion; 1997 fourth quarter earnings were up 15 percent.

Not everyone, however, approved of Lilly's direct-to-consumer efforts. The American Medical Association condemned all advertising that targeted patients. Erik Parens' column in the Washington Post was indicative of the outcry directed at the Prozac campaign. "Of course, doctors can—and should—say no to anyone who doesn't need a particular medication. But let's not fool ourselves: If doctors are under pressure from their patients to prescribe a particular medication, they must become strong gatekeepers to prevent misuse."

Despite the negative response from some columnists and consumer advocacy groups, a great many doctors and mental health alliances praised the campaign's efforts to educate a large number of individuals who suffered, undiagnosed and untreated, from an often debilitating illness.

Lilly, Eli

views updated May 17 2018

Eli Lilly

American pharmaceutical executive Eli Lilly (1885–1977) spent nearly 70 years with the family company that bears his name. Lilly guided the Indiana business, which had been founded by his grandfather a decade before his birth, through a period of both immense change and immense success over the course of the twentieth century. The scientific advances made during his tenure, combined with the firm's emergence as a marketing leader, helped make Eli Lilly one of the world's leading drug companies.

Company Founded in 1876

Lilly was born on April 1, 1885, in Indianapolis, Indiana. His grandfather and namesake, Colonel Eli Lilly, was a Maryland native whose parents had relocated to Greencastle, Indiana, when he was a child. During the Civil War, the elder Lilly served with a regiment from Indiana that fought on the Union Army side, and after the war's end the "Colonel" settled in Indiana and established himself as a pharmaceutical chemist and owner of a drugstore. He founded the company that bears his name in 1876 with $1,400 in savings, establishing a small laboratory space on Pearl Street.

Originally, the company made pills and the fluid extracts that were popular medicines in the era before doctors dispensed medicines only with a prescription. The Colonel's laboratory soon gained a reputation for producing reliable products that were often markedly better than the standard patent medicines sold over the counter. Many of these potions were ineffective or even dangerous, but the Colonel's business plan aimed to make and sell only formulas that were recommended by physicians for their efficacy. One early bestseller was Succus Alterans, which was reportedly derived from an old Creek Indian formula. It was marketed as a blood purifier and treatment for "syphilitic conditions," rheumatism, and skin problems like psoriasis.

Joined as Junior Bottle – Washer

Lilly's father, Josiah K. Lilly, joined the family business, and assumed its helm when the Colonel died in 1898. Josiah had married a distant cousin, Lilly Ridgely, who became Lilly Ridgely Lilly, and they had two sons: Eli and Josiah Jr. The family lived in an affluent neighborhood in Indianapolis known as the "new north side" at the time, but also spent summers on Lake Wawasee in Kosciusko County, where the Colonel had a cottage. Lilly was close to his grandfather as a child, and his lifelong interest in archeology would be sparked by the tales of Native Americans in the Indiana area that his grandfather regaled him with during summers on the lake.

Lilly began working at the company pharmaceutical plant at the age of ten during the summer months. He began as a bottle–washer, and later progressed to other duties, such as cleaning out hogs' stomachs used in one of the medicinal preparations the company made from scratch, or grinding the foul–smelling pokeroot. After graduating from Shortridge High School in 1904, he went on to the esteemed Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Three years later, having earned his degree, he joined the family business full–time and wed Evelyn Fortune, whom he had known since childhood. The couple had three children, but two died in infancy—one at the age of one month, the second at seven months. Only their daughter Evie, born in 1918, survived to adulthood, but her life would be touched by later tragedy as well.

Implemented New Management Ideas

Lilly's father was pleased that his son was joining the growing company, but did not wish to give him a job that might have been due as a promotion for a longtime employee. Thus Lilly was installed as head of the newly created Economic Department, and charged with finding ways of to make the company more efficient. Lilly proved a whiz at this, and instituted several new policies and systems. It was his idea, for example, to make multiple copies of manufacturing formulas from blueprinting. The tickets traveled with the product through each of the departments, and helped streamline the manufacturing and shipping process and improve quality.

Lilly was also fan of time–motion studies, and read avidly on new business management ideas gaining currency at the time. He was a particular devotee of Frederick W. Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management, and the ideas in it found their way into company policy. There was a Methods and Standards Department, and its official manual set forth guidelines for completing nearly every task at the company in the most efficient manner possible—even for polishing the brass entrance doors. The manual advised Lilly employees that "both hands should be busy; if they are not, surely some change can be made to keep them busy all the time," according to James H. Madison's Eli Lilly: A Life.

In 1909, Lilly was named superintendent of the manufacturing division, where he continued to implement new ideas that made the company more efficient and thus more profitable. He devised a new method for filling gelatin capsules, and the Lilly company's automated system even merited a 1917 feature article in Scientific American. By this time his younger brother Josiah had also joined the company, with responsibilities in the human resources department, and Lilly was soon made a vice president with supervision of both the manufacturing and scientific divisions. The World War I years forced the company, along with other American pharmaceutical makers, to find new sources for the plants and extracts used for drug manufacturing. Before World War I, pharmaceutical research was in its infancy still, and remained largely a European effort. The wartime restrictions on commerce forced Lilly to rethink its corporate strategy and invest in research and development closer to home.

Aided Discovery of Insulin

That strategy paid off handsomely. A new Experimental Medicine division, within the Lilly's Scientific Department, was established in the early 1920s, and the two Lilly brothers installed a brilliant British scientist, George Henry Alexander Clowes, as its head. Clowes oversaw the company's first significant breakthrough: insulin. Working with scientists from the University of Toronto, Clowes theorized that extracting insulin from sheep and cattle pancreas and injecting it into humans who suffered from diabetes might yield positive results. Diabetes was a fatal disease at the time, a condition in which the pancreas did not produce enough insulin, the hormone that regulates the body's conversion of food into usable energy. A child born with it had a life–expectancy rate of just one year, while adults sufferers wasted away from the starvation diet, the only remedy doctors believed would help.

The Lilly Company launched insulin on the market in October of 1923, and it proved a historic breakthrough that won two of the Toronto scientists, Frederick Banting and J. J. R. Macleod, the 1923 Nobel Prize. The new treatment was said to have saved the lives of thousands of diabetics in its first weeks on the market alone, and newspaper stories trumpeted the Lilly product around the world. Eager to continue such success, Lilly approved many new research projects, including a liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia in 1930. The deadly blood disease afflicted his own mother, but the Lilly formula could not save her in the end, and she died in 1934.

Applied Management Techniques to Personal Life

Lilly oversaw a company that became a world leader in the 1920s, but his strong work ethic took its toll on his marriage, and he and Evelyn divorced in 1926. He married his longtime secretary, Ruth Allison, on November 27, 1927. A year after the death of his mother, Lilly's father, then 73, wed Allison's sister. Father and son grew closer, though when Lilly was younger their relationship was somewhat strained. Lilly had long strived to please his father, and his work schedule and lengthy correspondence with his father proved that. But his second marriage instigated a determination to become a more well–rounded person, apparently, and he decided to change his personality. He even went so far as to author his own "Plan for Developing a Proper Outlook on Life." It recommended the deployment of willpower, the cultivation of a sense of humor, and an expansion of the mind through reading and cultural pursuits.

Despite the divorce, Lilly tried to be an involved parent to his daughter Evie. He wrote her regularly, and she spent several weeks of the year with him in Indiana. The entertainment at her lavish debutant party at her father's home in 1937 included big–band star Benny Goodman. But Evie eschewed college, entered into two ill–advised marriages, and began to drink heavily. She spent time at rehabilitation facilities, but her increasing irresponsibility compelled her father to alter his will by 1948 after realizing she would likely squander any fortune left to her.

From 1932 to 1948 Lilly served as president of the company, which continued to thrive. During World War II it became involved with a joint research effort that led to the discovery and mass production of penicillin, the life–saving antibiotic. It also produced a typhus vaccine and Merthiolate, an antiseptic, for the battlefield. Josiah Sr., his father, died in 1948, and by then Lilly was 63 years old and, ostensibly, nearing retirement age. He became company chair that year and his brother assumed the president's post. After Lilly was appointed honorary chair in 1953 and had no other daily duties at company headquarters, he came to the office three days a week for years and remained a vital force.

An Ardent Republican

During these years Lilly's fortune accrued, thanks in part to the company's work on another medical breakthrough, the polio vaccine in 1955. The immense profits made from the life–saving vaccine, which had reduced deaths by polio some 95 percent in its first six years on the market, aroused government regulatory suspicion. Lilly's company and four others were accused of a price–fixing scheme in 1958, but were exonerated after a long legal battle. Lilly, a staunch Indiana Republican, opposed what he saw as meddling in business, and once dryly remarked that "it takes about fifty percent of the time of our top brass to fight our own government," according to the Madison biography.

Lilly assumed the post of company chair again after his brother died in 1966, and held it for another three years until becoming honorary chair once again. By this time, the interests he had determined to cultivate in order to improve his personality had borne much fruit. He collected Native American artifacts from the Indiana area, and even authored a book on the subject, Prehistoric Antiquities of Indiana. In 1934, he bought and began a long restoration of the William Conner homestead in Noblesville, Indiana. The Conner home dated back to the early 1800s, and was of first two–story brick homes in the entire region. Lilly turned it into a historical and educational landmark. He was also active in the Christ Church in downtown Indianapolis for decades.

Doled Out Raincoats

Lilly was eager to see theories about personality development explored in a more scientific setting, and funded a number of projects that were the work of respected sociologists and other researchers. These efforts were done largely under the auspices of the Lilly Endowment, which he and his brother had established in 1937. Yet he was also a personally generous fellow, and one story claims he once noticed a young woman on a scooter at a stoplight in Indianapolis during a downpour. Rolling down the window of his Rolls–Royce, he offered her his own raincoat, which she warily accepted. He began keeping a stock of plastic raincoats on hand for similar situations.

The Rolls was one of Lilly's few personal indulgences, and he liked to sit in the front with his longtime driver so they could chat. He continued to come into the office three days a week, even on his 90th birthday. His health declined after the death of Ruth in 1973; his daughter Evelyn had died of cancer as well three years earlier. He was diagnosed with liver cancer not long after the company celebrated its centennial anniversary in 1976. Worth over $165 million when he died, he left large bequests of stock to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Butler University, Wabash College, the Indiana Historical Society, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and the Lilly Endowment.

Books

Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 10: 1976–1980, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995.

Madison, James H., Eli Lilly: A Life, 1885–1977, Indiana Historical Society, 1989.

Periodicals

American Druggist, April 1996.

Indianapolis Business Journal, December 27, 1999.

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Eli Lilly & Company

Eli Lilly & Company

Principal Subsidiaries

Further Reading

Eli Lilly & Company

Eli Lilly & Company

Principal Subsidiaries

Further Reading

Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly’s Origins and Community Commitments: 1870S-1960S

Business in the 1970s and 1980s

Company Perspectives:

Key Dates:

The 1990s and the New Millennium

Principal Subsidiaries

Principal Competitors

Further Reading

Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company

Contact Information:

OVERVIEW

COMPANY FINANCES

ANALYSTS' OPINIONS

HISTORY

STRATEGY

INFLUENCES

CURRENT TRENDS

FAST FACTS: About Eli Lilly and Company

PRODUCTS

CHRONOLOGY: Key Dates for Eli Lilly & Company

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

GLOBAL PRESENCE

HEALTHY HERBS

EMPLOYMENT

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Bibliography

For an annual report:

For additional industry research:

Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company

PROZAC PRINT CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

TARGET MARKET

COMPETITION

PEPPERMINT PROZAC

MARKETING STRATEGY

OUTCOME

FURTHER READING

Lilly, Eli

Eli Lilly

Company Founded in 1876

Joined as Junior Bottle – Washer

Implemented New Management Ideas

Aided Discovery of Insulin

Applied Management Techniques to Personal Life

An Ardent Republican

Doled Out Raincoats

Books

Periodicals

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