HEALTH

FDA OKs Schizophrenia Drug: Doctors say the drug could help patients who don’t respond to existing medicines. Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co.’s olanzapine, to be sold under the brand name Zyprexa, has not yet been adequately compared to existing medicines, so the Food and Drug Administration could not let the company advertise the drug as superior. But psychiatrists have high hopes for olanzapine because it is chemically similar to an older medicine that often proved best at controlling schizophrenia--except that many patients couldn’t tolerate its side effects. Olanzapine appears to have the benefits of that older drug, clozapine, without the side effects, scientists say. Lilly planned to ship olanzapine to wholesalers today. The wholesale price for a 60-day supply is $387, and some analysts have predicted the drug could generate annual sales of up to $1 billion by 2000.