WHITE HALL, Mich. – After a year of inaction in the Michigan Senate, State Representative Mary Valentine (D-Norton Shores) today called on Senate leadership 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.
"We fought tooth and nail with the drug industry and its cronies to allow our citizens to have a voice," Valentine said. "Now, a year has been wasted while the Senate stonewalled, and Michigan families are still left without a voice. We need to act now for our residents who have been harmed by dangerous and deadly products."
The package of bills will:
- Repeal a 1996 law granting legal immunity to drug companies. Signed into law by then-Governor John Engler, 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.
Valentine and her colleagues 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.
The fight by the House to repeal drug immunity began in 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.
"Michigan is the only state in the nation that puts big drug companies before people," said Valentine. "It's ridiculous that our current law protects the drug companies instead of Michigan victims and their families. We need to repeal the drug industry's free ride, and we need to do it now."