Recently, Eli Lilly agreed to plead guilty and to pay $36 million in connection with its "illegal promotion" of the drug Evista, which is approved by the FDA for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. The case involves the off-label promotion of Evista for treatment of heart disease and breast cancer in women.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, according to the Washington Legal Foundation among other interested parties.

Be that as it may, what interested me were some of the tactics that Lilly used and which were detailed in documents supplied by the Department of Justice. Again, for me, the issue is transparency.

For more on this topic, read today's post to Wall Street Journal's favorite pharmaceutical industry blog.