P.M. BRIEFING : Eli Lilly & Co. Halts 60 Products

Eli Lilly & Co. has discontinued manufacturing 60 products and versions of products, according to a notification letter sent to drug wholesalers around the country.

Representatives of several pharmaceutical wholesaling companies said that the products involved were either old or slow-selling and that the loss of the items will have little or no financial impact on them.

“It shouldn’t cause any problems. Our buyers reacted to it as a routine maintenance” of Lilly’s product line, said a spokesman for Bergen Brunswig Corp., a California-based drug wholesaler.

Lilly said it knows of no other manufacturers for 10 of the discontinued products, including two package sizes of 32 mg. Darvon capsules. However, other dosage sizes of Darvon are available.

In addition, some packaging formats of Axid, Lilly’s anti-ulcer drug, and of Keflex, an antibiotic, were discontinued, but Lilly continues to manufacture those products in other formats.

Several of the products discontinued were among those cited in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s highly critical inspection report on Lilly’s manufacturing practices issued last year.