  Lukabottle Member Username: Lukabottle Post Number: 166 Registered: 12-2004 |
On March 4, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Diana Levine in a 6-3 decision, rejecting the claim that drug manufacturers who fail to warn consumers of their products’ risks can evade responsibility for the harm they do. Hopefully this desicion will change things for the positive in Michigan. http://www.freep.com/article/2 0090220/OPINION05/902200328 February 20, 2009 Drugmakers seek lawsuit immunity BY NAN ARON and JOHN PHILO When you use a prescription drug or medical device, you assume that if it causes you serious harm its maker will be held accountable -- right? Wrong. Not in Michigan today, and soon not in any other state if the drug industry has its way. Since 1995, Michigan has been the only state that prohibits victims of unsafe drugs from going before a jury to seek compensation. The state law protecting manufacturers was passed in 1995 with strong support from Upjohn, now part of Pfizer, the largest drug company in the world. Now Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which is also merging with Pfizer, has a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. A decision in Wyeth's favor would take away the right of Americans in every state to be compensated when products that are supposed to promote health instead hurt patients. The drug giant argues that once a company has permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market a medication or a device such as a defibrillator, heart pump or artificial heart valve, hip or knee, it can no longer be held accountable in state court for any harm that product causes. This "hit and run" legal theory is like saying that once someone gets a driver's license, that person can't be held legally responsible for ramming your car on the freeway and sending you to the hospital. The test case before the U.S. Supreme Court involves a professional musician named Diana Levine. Levine went to the emergency room for a severe migraine headache. One of the drugs administered there caused gangrene and then amputation of her arm. Wyeth, which made and marketed the drug, knew there was significant risk of gangrene when the medicine was administered by an intravenous push injection. The risk had already been demonstrated in at least 20 cases. When Levine sought compensation for her injuries, a jury, and then her state's Supreme Court, found that Wyeth should be held accountable for its failure to warn doctors of this risk. If the drug giant is able to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the jury verdict and the state court, manufacturers of medications and medical devices will be allowed to hit and run throughout the country. And they will lose an important incentive to make sure their products are safe in the first place. Rather than replicating Michigan's anti-consumer policy nationwide, we need a Supreme Court ruling that will allow our legislators to repeal the state's hit-and-run law. Past experience has proved that FDA permission to market a product does not guarantee public safety. Well known drugs permitted by the FDA but later found to have caused serious health damage include Vioxx, Zoloft, fen-phen, Avandia and Celebrex. Even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the drug industry, there are other remedies. Congress can pass a law making it crystal clear that federal regulators' approval to market a product does not relieve manufacturers of responsibility to make the product safe. In addition, Michigan's U.S. senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, will have the opportunity to support appointments by President Barack Obama of federal judges at all levels who recognize that our Constitution provides for equal justice for all, not just for big companies or CEOs. Drug companies spend millions of dollars a year lobbying Congress. The rest of us must be heard before it's too late. NAN ARON is president of Alliance for Justice, a coalition of more than 80 public interest organizations. Write her at nan@afj.org. JOHN PHILO is legal director of the Sugar Law Center, a national nonprofit public interest law center based in Detroit. Write to him at mail@sugarlaw.org. You may also write to them in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226. For more information: Ann Arbor: March 26, noon-1 pm, University of Michigan Angell B Auditorium With discussion by Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron and U-M Professor Henry Greenspan Detroit: March 26, 6-7:30 pm, Wayne State University Welcome Center Auditorium With discussion by Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron, Wayne State Professors Robert Sedler and Jack Lessenberry, and top Michigan attorney Linda Miller Atkinson | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 8732 Registered: 02-2007 |
Here, take this medicine. it might help you, but it might cause gangrene. I seriously doubt many people would say "go ahead" instead of "isn't there some other treatment" if they were presented with that fact | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5414 Registered: 06-2004 |
Michigan really only had that law because the companies were founded and headquartered here. They're gone now. | ||
20043_stotter Member Username: 20043_stotter Post Number: 845 Registered: 03-2007 |
I know somebody who took a prescribed drug and his pecker fell off. Seriously, patients are getting screwed and the legislators are helping the drug companies. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 8735 Registered: 02-2007 |
Evidently not the guy you know, stotter | ||
20043_stotter Member Username: 20043_stotter Post Number: 847 Registered: 03-2007 |
RB, He didn't show me, he told me.  | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19541 Registered: 11-2006 |
A very tangled web given the voluminous material of "possible" side effects of ALL meds (including Aspirin, Tylenol, etc). Bottom line, find a Doc that you trust, and hope for the best...less is often more when it comes to medications. | ||
D_mcc Member Username: D_mcc Post Number: 1743 Registered: 12-2007 |
Here ya go CC http://d3gkbha1s7sr56.cloudfro nt.net/someecards/filestorage/ soto_927.jpg | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19543 Registered: 11-2006 |
Way understated. | ||
Lukabottle Member Username: Lukabottle Post Number: 167 Registered: 12-2004 |
I don't think many people realize how serious this issue is in Michigan. | ||
Alan55 Member Username: Alan55 Post Number: 2628 Registered: 09-2005 |
CC: "Bottom line, find a Doc that you trust, and hope for the best..." Ha, ha, ha, ha! How about expect and DEMAND the best, and if he fails to deliver it, bottom line, sue him into oblivion as a public service? | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19601 Registered: 11-2006 |
Ha ha ha Alan. It doesn't work like that. Unless you want a system in which Physicians are afraid to offer any meaningful treatments for fear of side effects, you will do more harm than good by being overly litigious. |
