LANSING - State Rep. Gino H. Polidori (D-Dearborn) today urged support for legislation that will end legal immunity for drug companies if their products harm Michigan residents.
"We must do more to protect our consumers and these bills do that," Rep. Polidori said. "These bills hold the drug companies accountable and make them responsible for their products."
Michigan is the only state that gives the drug industry absolute immunity when their products harm consumers, the result of a 1996 law signed by then-Gov. John Engler and the Republican-controlled Legislature.
"The powerful drug industry, its lobbyists and its high-priced attorneys have denied Michigan consumers full access to the law and this must not go on," Rep. Polidori said. "Our consumers are denied the right to take legal action because they live in Michigan. That's wrong, and it must end."
The bills unveiled Monday:
* Would repeal the 1996 law granting legal immunity for drug companies. Under that law, drug companies are immune if the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved those drugs for safety and effectiveness.
* Are retroactive, giving Michigan residents harmed by prescription drugs since 1996 their day in court.
* Include drug companies in the Consumer Protection Act. They are currently exempt.
Some FDA-approved drugs like Vioxx, Rezulin, Fen-Phen and Bextra have caused serious medical problems for thousands of consumers, Rep. Polidori pointed out. Diabetes drug Rezulin, for example, has been linked to 400 deaths nationwide, according to a 2000 study.
In February, a New York federal judge dismissed claims by 187 Michigan residents against Warner-Lambert, which makes Rezulin. The drug was pulled off the market in 2000 after it was linked to nearly 400 deaths and thousands of cases of liver failure, the Detroit Free Press reported in February 2005.
Anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx was pulled off the market in 2004 after the drug was found to cause heart attacks or cardiac deaths in tens of thousands of Americans. The FDA banned weight-loss medication Fen-Phen in 1997 after it caused hypertension and heart-valve abnormalities in tens of thousands of people nationwide. Bextra was taken off the market last week due to an increased risk of heart attack and serious skin reactions among the painkiller's users.
Rep. Polidori said many members of FDA drug-approval boards have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. FDA scientist Dr. David Graham testified in the U.S. Senate that the FDA's system for drug evaluation is in disarray.