Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP Files Class Action Suit Against Eli Lilly and Company

Business Wire, April 5, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP ("Lerach Coughlin") (http://www.lerachlaw.com/cases/elililly/) today announced that a class action has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of Eli Lilly and Company ("Lilly") (NYSE:LLY) publicly traded securities during the period between March 28, 2002 and December 22, 2006 (the "Class Period").

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from April 2, 2007. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel, William Lerach or Darren Robbins of Lerach Coughlin at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at wsl@lerachlaw.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed or join this class action online at http://www.lerachlaw.com/cases/elililly/. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.

The complaint charges Lilly and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Lilly is in the business of developing and marketing pharmaceuticals.

Lilly produces and markets Zyprexa, a drug treatment for schizophrenia, among other things. Zyprexa is by far Lilly's largest-selling drug, with sales of $4.3 billion in 2006 alone. The complaint alleges that at the beginning of the Class Period, defendants contended that Zyprexa did not cause diabetes-related side effects. Once the publicly available clinical data rendered this position untenable, defendants argued instead that Zyprexa did not cause more side effects than its competitors. Eventually, more and more clinical data showed that, in fact, Zyprexa does cause such side effects and to a greater extent than its competitors. These revelations sharply curtailed the sales growth of Zyprexa and resulted in thousands of product liability lawsuits against Lilly and hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements. It has recently come to light that defendants intentionally suppressed and misrepresented data showing that Zyprexa causes weight gain, high blood sugar, and diabetes in a series of articles in The New York Times which excerpted internal Lilly documents detailing defendants' deception. The documents show for the first time that defendants intentionally misled patients, doctors, and investors about the side effects of Zyprexa. As a result of these revelations, the price of Lilly's stock declined almost 6% in the five trading days during which the series of articles was published. The members of the proposed class invested in Lilly securities unaware that defendants' fraud had artificially inflated the prices of those securities. When the truth was finally revealed, those investors lost many millions of dollars as a result of defendants' fraud.

Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Lilly publicly traded securities during the Class Period. The plaintiff is represented by Lerach Coughlin, which has expertise in prosecuting investor class actions and extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud.

Lerach Coughlin, a 180-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Houston, Philadelphia and Seattle, is active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human rights violations. Lerach Coughlin lawyers have been responsible for more than $20 billion in aggregate recoveries. The Lerach Coughlin Web site (http://www.lerachlaw.com) has more information about the firm.