Eli Lilly ‘Inadvertently’ Lists Prozac Patients’ E-Mail

Eli Lilly and Co. last week "inadvertently" released the e-mail addresses of patients taking Prozac for depression, bulimia or obsessive-compulsive disorder, the Washington Post reports. A June 27 e-mail message to subscribers of a Lilly-sponsored Internet service that sends "reminders" about taking Prozac contained the e-mail addresses of more than 600 people who had signed up for the notification. Lilly has been running the service for two years, addressing the messages only to individuals. But last week's message included every participant's e-mail address because of a computer error, according to Lilly spokesperson Laura Miller. The message was to announce that the service was being discontinued. (O'Harrow, Washington Post, 7/4). Miller said the company has "temporarily" stopped all e-mail to patients while the problem is being corrected (AP/Detroit News, 7/5). In response to the message, privacy specialists said the "lapse" indicates the difficulty of "protecting sensitive information" on the Internet (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 7/5). The Post reports that the American Civil Liberties Union has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the pharmaceutical company has violated its privacy policy or any trade laws that cover consumer information. In a letter to the FTC, ACLU Associate Director Barry Steinhardt and Internet policy analyst Christopher Chiu wrote, "These events set a dangerous precedent. Eli Lilly had a duty of care and a duty under the Federal Trade laws to protect the confidentiality of the medical consumers who used (its) product" (Washington Post, 7/4).