Thieves scaled a wall at a pharmaceutical warehouse over the weekend, cut a hole in the roof and rappelled inside to steal about $70 million in antidepressants and other prescription drugs, said an AP report.

The thieves disabled the security alarm at the Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse early Sunday in Enfield, Mass., where they spent at least an hour loading pallets of drugs into a waiting vehicle at the warehouse's loading dock during a wind-whipped rainstorm, the report said.

 

The thieves, whose identities remained unknown today, made off with enough drugs to fill at least one tractor-trailer, police said. The FBI has been called in to investigate. Authorities would not comment on whether the building had surveillance video or whether employees were being investigated.

 

Edward Sagebiel, a spokesman for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, placed the market value of the drugs at $70 million. They included the antidepressants Prozac and Cymbalta and the anti-psychotic Zyprexa, he said. The warehouse contained no narcotics or painkillers, he said.

 

Zyprexa and Cymbalta were Eli Lilly's two best-selling drugs last year. Prozac was Lilly's first billion-dollar drug and the company's top seller before it lost patent protection several years ago, said the report.

Thieves scaled a wall at a pharmaceutical warehouse over the weekend, cut a hole in the roof and rappelled inside to steal about $70 million in antidepressants and other prescription drugs, said an APO report.

The thieves disabled the alarm at the Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse early Sunday in Enfield, where they spent at least an hour loading pallets of drugs into a waiting vehicle at the warehouse's loading dock during a wind-whipped rainstorm, the report said.

 

The thieves, whose identities remained unknown Tuesday, made off with enough drugs to fill at least one tractor-trailer, said the report.

 

Edward Sagebiel, a spokesman for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, placed the market value of the drugs at $70 million. They included the antidepressants Prozac and Cymbalta and the anti-psychotic Zyprexa, he said. The warehouse contained no narcotics or painkillers, he said.

 

Zyprexa and Cymbalta were Eli Lilly's two best-selling drugs last year. Prozac was Lilly's first billion-dollar drug and the company's top seller before it lost patent protection several years ago. The thefts will not cause any national shortages of the products, the report said.