LANSING – House Democrats today once again demanded action in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate on a House plan that will end drug industry immunity in Michigan and allow residents who have been harmed by dangerous prescription drugs to hold big drug companies accountable. The call to action comes as a prestigious medical journal published two damning reports showing that Merck took steps to cover up the dangers of Vioxx and hired ghostwriters to draft research studies.
"The victims of dangerous drugs are still waiting to have a voice in Michigan," said State Representative Mike Simpson (D-Jackson), 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 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 just because they live in Michigan."
Two reports published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) highlight the need to change Michigan law to protect our residents from harmful drugs. In one report, U.S. researchers charge that Merck knew about the dangers of Vioxx years before it pulled the product and even went so far as to suppress evidence that Vioxx could harm patients.
"This is a major, serious safety signal," Dr. Bruce Psaty, whose study compared internal Merck documents with data submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and published research, told Reuters News Service1. "If these findings had been reported publicly in April of 2001, it is likely that many fewer patients would have chosen to use Vioxx and probably many fewer would have been injured."
A second report in JAMA reveals that Merck used ghostwriters to draft research studies for its biggest money-making drugs, and then recruited prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports. U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, told Bloomberg News that the reports "reveal just how far a drugmaker might go to market its product and try to bury information that might hurt sales even when that information directly affected the health and safety of the people taking their medicine." 2
House Democrats have been fighting to repeal drug industry immunity since 2005. In February 2007, House Democrats passed a plan that will end the free ride that big drug companies enjoy in Michigan – it has been languishing in the State Senate ever since.
The House Democrats' plan 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 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 exempt.
"These reports from respected researchers are further evidence that you can't trust the big drug companies to do the right thing – they are clearly more interested in profits than people," said Majority Floor Leader Steve Tobocman (D-Detroit). "I am calling on the Senate to stop stonewalling and to step up and take action now. It's time to take a stand against the drug industry and allow our residents to hold companies accountable."
1 "Researchers Charge Merck Misrepresented Vioxx Data," Reuters News Service, April 15, 2008.
2 "Merck Masked Vioxx Risk, Hired Study Ghostwriters," Bloomberg News, April 16, 2008.