Northwest Indiana Discussion

The bottom line here is the bottom line. It makes more milk, at it creates more milk that is NOT HEALTHY for human consumption. So Eli Lilly is investing in a product that they already know to be, as they put it, "controversial." This clearly shows their priorities.

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""We are very familiar with it (Posilac), and we are familiar with the controversy," said Elanco spokeswoman Joan Todd after the deal was announced Wednesday. "We've got to feed a growing global population. This is a recognized, safe and effective way to do it.""

Lilly paying Monsanto $300M for controversial dairy hormone Posilac
Controversial Posilac can increase milk production

By Jeff Swiatek • jeff.swiatek@indystar.com • August 21, 2008
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... r-business

The Indianapolis drug maker, which has been investing more heavily in its animal health business in the past two years, said it is ready to take on the task of promoting the BST hormone, called Posilac, as a farming tool that can boost milk supplies for a world hungry for more dairy products.

Posilac opponents point to studies that show cows given Posilac have higher rates of udder infections. They also say the hormone increases a substance, called bovine insulin-like growth factor 1, that has been linked to cancer and is passed on to humans through the milk.

"We are very familiar with it (Posilac), and we are familiar with the controversy," said Elanco spokeswoman Joan Todd after the deal was announced Wednesday. "We've got to feed a growing global population. This is a recognized, safe and effective way to do it."

Monsanto said last week that it was putting the product up for sale after marketing it for 14 years. The genetically engineered protein is injected into dairy cows to boost milk production an average of 15 percent by preventing mammary cell death.

The sale agreement gives Lilly worldwide rights to the product, the Posilac sales force and the sole production plant in Augusta, Ga. Some of the more than 200 Monsanto employees who will join Lilly will be moved to Elanco's offices in Hancock County.

Lilly knows the product well. It has been selling Posilac outside the United States the past 10 years under a marketing agreement with St. Louis-based Monsanto.

Expected to be final in October, the deal is the largest product acquisition Elanco has made. The upfront price amounts to about a third of Elanco's $1 billion in annual sales from all its animal health products. Lilly also will pay Monsanto a portion of future Posilac sales, plus assume royalty payments Monsanto makes to the University of California related to the product.

Food activists who have depicted Posilac as unsafe for cows and for humans who drink the cows' milk vowed to include Lilly in their anti-Posilac campaigns.

"We're definitely going to set our sights on Eli Lilly right now," said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association. "One of the most hated products in the world is now going to be tarnishing the image of Eli Lilly."

Health regulators in Canada, Japan, Australia and the European Community have not approved Posilac for sale. Nineteen other countries have approved the hormone's use.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declared Posilac safe.

But the use of the artificial bovine somatotropin, or BST, hormone has fallen into increasing disfavor in the United States as numerous dairy wholesalers and grocery chains have vowed not to use milk from Posilac-treated herds. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart and Kroger said their store-brand milk won't come from herds treated with artificial BST.

Monsanto was aggressive in its defense of Posilac. The company lobbied states to pass laws preventing the labeling of milk coming from non- Posilac-treated cows.

Lilly has long experience dealing with public controversies over its drugs, including its antidepressant Prozac, which was linked to suicidal inclinations in patients soon after going on the market and its current best-seller Zyprexa, an antipsychotic that can cause weight gain.

"With the purchase of Posilac, Elanco can enhance its overall product portfolio and work together with the industry to provide dairy farmers more options and give consumers affordable choices," Elanco President Jeff Simmons said in a statement.

He pointed to a study by researchers from Cornell University and Monsanto that showed the use of Posilac results in greater efficiencies for farmers. Compared with cows not given the artificial hormone, herds injected with Posilac produced 6.8 percent less manure, required less food and generated smaller amounts of greenhouse gases.

If 1 million of the nation's 9 million dairy cows were given Posilac, the reduction in greenhouse gases would be equivalent to removing 400,000 family cars from the road or planting 300 million trees, said the study, published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Monsanto doesn't divulge Posilac's sales or market share, but Simmons said Elanco sees growth opportunities for the product.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483.