Woman sues pharmacy for mailing her Prozac trial pack.(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

A Broward County, Fla., woman who received an unexpected trial pack of once-a-week Prozac in the mail filed suit on Monday against her doctors, the Walgreen Co. pharmacy chain and drug manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co. for invading her privacy and other alleged violations of Florida law.

"I found it appalling and frightening to receive free samples of a very powerful medication by mail when I didn't know the package was coming," said the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea resident who is identified as "S.K." in the suit filed in Broward County Circuit Court. "What if my grandchildren had taken in the mail and found this medication? It could be very dangerous."

The privacy issue comes to the forefront, attorney Gary Farmer Jr. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said, because other people could have access to the package and accompanying literature and deduce the kind of illness the recipient has.

Farmer also represents a Pompano Beach, Fla., man who is suing Eckerd Corp. over solicitations the chain mailed to him with "information" about a new drug to treat HIV infection. The Florida attorney general is investigating Eckerd's policies and wants to know why the company uses supposedly confidential medical histories to market drugs through such solicitations.

Eckerd officials deny that the company's so-called "communications programs" violate patients' privacy rights because only pharmacists see confidential patient information.

S.K.'s sample Prozac was an attempt by Lilly to switch patients to a new variety of the brand-name drug because the patent for Prozac taken daily had expired, Farmer said. The drug now is available in a cheaper, generic copy.

But S.K. had no reason to switch. She said she hadn't taken Prozac in seven years and never had a prescription for it in Florida. Why then did Walgreen's send her the samples? An accompanying letter from her doctors gives a clue.