LANSING – After a year of inaction by the Republican-led Senate, House Democrats today called on the Senate Majority Leader to pass a package of bills that will end the absolute immunity enjoyed by the pharmaceutical industry in Michigan and allow consumers to hold big drug companies accountable when dangerous drugs such as Vioxx harm or kill. The House passed the package on Feb. 22, 2007. The public is urged to sign an online petition demanding Senate action at www.housedems.com.
"The victims of dangerous drugs are still waiting to have a voice in Michigan," said State Representative Mike Simpson (D-Jackson), who was the lead sponsor of the bill to repeal drug industry immunity. "The drug industry and its allies tried blocking every attempt to get these bills before the House floor for nearly two years before we finally passed them. Now, the Republican-led Senate has spent another year stonewalling any effort to hold drug companies accountable. It's outrageous that our residents are treated as second-class citizens simply because they live in Michigan."
The package of bills will:
- Repeal a 1996 law granting legal immunity to drug companies. Passed by then-Governor John Engler and the Republican-controlled Legislature, the law gives companies complete immunity from legal action so long as the drug in question has been approved for safety and efficacy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- Make the repeal retroactive so that residents harmed by dangerous drugs since 1996 can seek legal recourse.
- Include big drug companies in the Consumer Protection Act, from which they are currently exempted.
House Democrats also launched an online petition today to urge the Senate to act immediately to end the special treatment big drug companies receive in Michigan. The public can go to www.housedems.com to sign the petition.
"For too long, our residents have been put at risk by FDA-approved drugs such as Vioxx and Rezulin, only to discover that they're on their own," said State Representative Marie Donigan (D-Royal Oak). "Michigan families deserve legal recourse when a dangerous drug makes it through the FDA's flawed screening process and is later proven to be unsafe."
House Democrats have been fighting to repeal drug immunity since 2005, when claims by 187 Michigan residents against Warner-Lambert, maker of the diabetes drug Rezulin, were dismissed by a New York federal court judge because of the Michigan law. Rezulin was pulled off the market in 2000 after it was linked to nearly 400 deaths and thousands of cases of liver failure.1
Bextra was taken off the market by drug maker Pfizer in 2005 due to an increased risk of heart attack and serious skin reactions among the painkiller's users. Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory drug that its maker, Merck, pulled off the market in 2004, may have caused heart attacks or cardiac deaths in up to 139,000 Americans, based on Merck's own studies. 2
In the fall, Merck agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle thousands of cases brought by people who suffered heart attacks and strokes after taking Vioxx.
Another Michigan resident, Kimberly Kent, is challenging Michigan's one-of-a-kind drug-industry immunity law before the U.S. Supreme Court. In the landmark case, she is suing the maker of Rezulin for causing her mother's death. The court will decide the question of whether manufacturers of products in America will receive immunity from litigation if one or more federal agencies regulate and approve those products.
"Even though Merck has agreed to pay almost $5 billion to people who were harmed by Vioxx, victims in Michigan are
at a disadvantage because they live in a state that puts the profits of a billon-dollar industry ahead of people," said
State Representative Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids). "That's
completely unacceptable. I urge the Senate to act with urgency and pass the House plan repealing drug immunity."
1: Anstett, Patricia and Norris, Kim. "Michigan Rezulin lawsuits tossed," Detroit Free Press, Feb.
25, 2005.
2: Graham testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Nov. 18, 2004.