LANSING – State Representative Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) and State Senator Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) led fellow legislators today in blasting State Senate Republicans for their ongoing delay tactics designed to shield drug companies from accountability even when their products cause harm or death. Michigan is the only state in the country that grants full immunity for drug companies when their products harm or kill. The Senate has repeatedly refused to act on Brown's legislation, which passed the House in March of last year.
"No industry should be let off scot-free when they make products that harm or kill," Brown said. "Thanks to the Senate, drug companies have gotten away with making harmful drugs like Vioxx, Rezulin and Fen-Phen. Michigan residents should not be treated like guinea pigs for the drug companies – we deserve the same rights as people in every other state that hold drug companies accountable when they market products they know are dangerous."
The Senate is using the same delay tactics on Brown's legislation as it did on similar bills that passed the House in 2006. Brown's plan, which passed the House in March, will repeal a 1996 law granting complete immunity to drug companies when their products harm or kill if the drug has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Just last year, the Republican-controlled Senate in Georgia rejected action on a similar drug industry immunity proposal, leaving Michigan as the only state in the country that protects the drug industry when its products harm or kill. In fact, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called drug industry immunity a "poison pill" that would make Georgia a "liability-free haven" for drug makers.
Proponents of Michigan's drug industry immunity law promised it would create tens of thousands of new pharmaceutical jobs. But since its passage, Michigan has lost thousands of drug company jobs to other states that protect their consumers.
“The House did their job and passed legislation to repeal Michigan’s archaic one-in-the-nation drug immunity law almost a year ago, but it looks like Mike Bishop and the Senate Republican leadership intend to offer up more of the same obstructionism in 2010,” Whitmer said. “Senate Republicans continue to treat Michigan consumers like second-class citizens, protecting their special interests instead of upholding the right to justice for the people we were elected to represent.”
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Drugmaker immunity is a poison pill," Jan. 14, 2009
