News

LANSING – With the support of Michigan residents who have been harmed by dangerous prescription drugs, State Representative Vicki Barnett (D-Farmington Hills) today backed a plan that will repeal a state law that gives drug companies immunity when their products harm or kill.

"This is a rather personal issue for me, as I know it is for a lot of Michigan residents," Barnett said. "For our state to have a law on the books that prevents individuals from having a voice when a drug harms them is outrageous. Our residents deserve justice. I urge my colleagues to move quickly on this plan and hold these companies accountable."

The House Judiciary Committee today approved three bills that will repeal Michigan's drug industry immunity law and allow citizens who have been harmed to hold drug companies accountable. The plan will:

• Repeal a 1996 law granting immunity to drug companies. Passed by then-Governor John Engler and the Republican-controlled Legislature, the law gives companies complete immunity in Michigan when their products harm or kill if the drug has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Make the repeal retroactive so Michigan residents who have been harmed by dangerous drugs since 1996 can hold drug companies accountable.
• Include drug companies in the Consumer Protection Act, from which they are exempt.

The House took action to end drug industry immunity in 2007, but the plan met with opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In 2005 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] 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] Bextra was taken off the market in 2005 due to an increased risk of heart attack and serious skin reactions among the painkiller's users.  

In the wake of scandals surrounding drugs such as Vioxx, Rezulin and Bextra, there have been revelations that members of FDA drug-approval boards have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. The public testimony of FDA scientists such as Dr. David Graham has indicated that the FDA's system for drug evaluation is "broken."^[3]

Recent action in the U.S. Supreme Court and in Georgia has called attention to the flaws in Michigan's drug industry immunity law.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 4 that a drug manufacturer is responsible for the content of its label if the product causes harm or death, despite FDA approval of the label.^[4] The ruling came in the case of a female musician who took action to hold drug maker Wyeth accountable when she lost her arm to gangrene after being injected with an anti-nausea medication.

Georgia's Governor proposed a drug industry immunity law for that state that would be similar to Michigan. The measure met with opposition from the Republican-controlled Senate. An editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the plan a "poison pill" that would "create a liability-free haven for drugmakers."^[5]