FDA Warns of Potential Safety Risk for Eli Lilly Antipsychotic Drug Zyprexa

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned of rare, but serious serious side effect risks for the antipsychotic olanzapine, mandating an update to the drug's safety label. In some cases, olanzapine can cause a sometimes fatal skin reaction known collectively as drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms.

Now generic, olanzapine is also marketed under the brand names Zyprexa and Symbyax by Eli Lilly.

Since the drug's first approval in 1996, the FDA has recorded 23 cases of the skin reaction in patients worldwide, one of whom later died.

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