Eli Lilly Faces Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Filed By Former Medical Representative

New York, NY (AHN) - A former female employee of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly filed a lawsuit against the company for sexual harassment. Tricia Galecke, 36, claimed her supervisor Michael Polkowitz and her sales partner Michael Lyons frequently made comments about her body.

When she complained to managed about the unwanted attention, Galecke, a former gymnast, was fired in March despite her 11-year tenure in the company as an outstanding sales representative.

Her lawsuit seeks to reverse a lower court decision which favored Polkowitz whom Galecke accused of false representation expense accounts at a Manhattan restaurant. Her problems did not end when Galecke left the firm. Employees labeled her a cheap woman in the company's Website cafepharma.com, which is read by the industry.

Steven Locke, Galecke's lawyer, said, quoted by the New York Daily News, "Professional women who value their careers are not going to take this lying down."

Angela Sekston, Eli Lilly spokeswoman, said the pharmaceutical firm was reviewing Galecke's lawsuit filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court. "We have very clear policies about respect that prohibit (this) type of conduct in the workplace," Sekston commented, quoted by the New York Daily News.

Lawsuits are not new to Eli Lilly, but most of the court cases it battled were medical in nature, not sexual. One of the latest lawsuits Eli Lilly concluded was a $15 million out-of-court settlement it agreed on March with Alaska, which sued the firm to recover medical bills it paid on behalf of Medicaid patients who developed diabetes while on Zyprexa, a schizophrenia drug manufactured by Eli Lilly.