Eli Lilli posted an unusual message yesterday on Twitter. The pharma giant apologized for a misleading tweet in which someone pretending to be the company wrote: “We’re excited to announce that insulin is now free.”
The company sells insulin, and it’s not free.
Eli Lilly (Real Handle @LillyPad) has Twitter to thank for the confusion over changes introduced since Elon Musk’s $44B acquisition. The pranksters were able to easily create an official-looking Twitter account — with a blue tick for the fake username “EliLillyandCo” — by paying $8 a month for Twitter Blue. The new subscription service, launched under Musk, comes with a blue tick that previously indicated accounts were legitimate.
Hours after the fake post, Eli Lilly’s stock fell sharply. How much the decline is related to the Post is not entirely clear. But similarly, shares of Lockheed Martin fell after a fake account – again via Twitter Blue – said the company was halting gun sales in some countries.
Lockheed Martin shares are down more than 5% each day after a Twitter Blue verified account posed as the defense company and said it was halting sales to certain countries, including the US
Similar declines at Eli Lilly following a fraudulent Twitter account. $LMT $LLY pic.twitter.com/TTQrmGUyCV
— David Slotnick [email protected] (@David_Slotnick) November 11, 2022
Gaming companies Nintendo and Valve have also been targeted by pranksters via Twitter Blue, as have prominent athletes, including NBA star LeBron James (who pretended to be requesting a trade) and Major League Baseball pitcher Aroldis Chapman (who claimed , he signed a deal he didn’t do).
Twitter Blue was unavailable on Friday following the spate of scammer accounts.
Twitter blue checkers under Musk
Before Musk took control of the platform, blue checks were used to denote legitimate accounts and were given out free to sources Twitter deemed notable and trustworthy.
On November 5, Twitter announced the Twitter Blue service, and in an update to its app on Apple iOS devices, said users could get the blue tick next to their name “just like the celebrities, businesses, and politicians you already follow.” .
That opened the door for pranksters to troll both drug companies and Twitter in the case of the Eli Lilly ploys.
Pharmaceutical companies have come under pressure because of the high cost of insulin and other drugs. This contributed to the Inflation Reduction Act — President Joe Biden’s sweeping health, climate and tax legislation — including a provision capping the cost of insulin at $35 a month (at least for Medicare beneficiaries).
Eli Lilly made no mention of insulin or pricing in his clarification note from his real Twitter account, simply writing, “We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account. Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad.”
Eli Lilly faced even more scams from a second fake Twitter account, this one with “LillyPadCo,” Insider reported. It also pretended to be the company’s real account and apologized for the first fake news, in which it wrote that Humalog, a diabetes drug sold by Eli Lilly, “is now $400.” We can do that whenever we want and you can’t do anything about it. suck it.”
The pharmaceutical company’s spokesman told Fortune: “We are committed to ensuring that patients and customers receive accurate information about our medicines. In the past few days, fake/parodistic Lilly Twitter accounts have been reporting incorrect information and we are working to rectify this situation.”
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