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Depressed Dot-Com Company Offers Free Prozac

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In what may be a sign of the times, one depressed dot-commer is offering free Prozac to depressed consumers as part of a promotion by the drug company.

The Indianapolis pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY - news) has teamed up with money-losing Internet healthcare firm WebMD Corp.(HTML) to offer Americans a free month's supply of the famed antidepressant.

Prozac has already lost about 80 percent of its market share since the generic form of fluoxetine, its chemical name, was introduced in August and Eli Lilly has been pushing its once-a-week form of Prozac, which has no generic competition.

Television commercials direct consumers to the WebMD web site where they can sign up for one-month's free Prozac through a special promotion with Eli Lilly, whose brand flashes up on the screen.

The direct-to-consumer advertising campaign, launched more than six months ago, appears to have gained momentum since Sept. 11 with more frequent television ads and a prominent display offer on WebMD's home page. The offer also appears with a coupon in newspapers and magazines.

Preying on the angst in America? ``Absolutely not,'' says Eli Lilly spokeswoman Debbie Davis. ``This is aimed at patients who have already been diagnosed with depression and have been stabilized on fluoxetine. For them, this is another treatment option.''

Both Davis and a spokeswoman for WebMD declined to provide details about the advertising campaign.

Sold in more 100 countries, more than 39 million patients have taken Prozac since its launch in 1988. Despite an onslaught of competition, Prozac is still the world's best selling antidepressant.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001