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LANSING – After a year of inaction by the Michigan Senate, State Representative Gary McDowell (D-Rudyard) today called on the chamber 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.

McDowell was accompanied by Boyne City resident Leslee Wiltjer, whose husband Robert suffered a stroke after taking the drug Celebrex for back pain.

"Michigan is the only place where drug companies aren't held to the same consumer-protection standards that other businesses are," McDowell said. "Michigan consumers such as Leslee Wiltjer and her husband deserve a voice. When the House passed our plan to end the free ride enjoyed by drug companies in Michigan, we did it to put the needs of our residents ahead of wealthy special interests. It's time for the Senate to do the same."

The package of bills 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 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.

The House also 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.

"For too long, Michigan residents such as my husband have been put at risk by FDA-approved drugs such as Celebrex, only to discover that they're on their own," Wiltjer said "Michigan families should have a voice when a dangerous drug makes it through the FDA's flawed screening process and is later proven to be unsafe. We deserve justice."

McDowell and his colleagues have been fighting to repeal drug immunity since 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.

Just last week, two new U.S. studies indicated that heart surgery patients were more likely to die if given the anti-bleeding drug Trasylol, which was on the market for 14 years before Bayer stopped selling the drug last fall. According to a Wednesday, Feb. 20 article by the Associated Press, Bayer knew the results of one study before a September 2006 federal hearing on the drug's safety, but did not present them^[3]

"For two years, my colleagues and I fought to get this plan passed in the House," McDowell said. "Now, another year has gone by while our plan languished in the Senate. The residents of Michigan have been denied the legal recourse they deserve for far too long. I call on the Senate to pass this plan and hold the big drug companies accountable."