U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog: Drug Company Protection Act or Defense Bill?

Over the weekend, without a vote, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) attached a 43-page provision granting drug companies unprecedented and sweeping immunity from liability lawsuits to a conference report on the so-called "must-pass" defense spending bill. It's a shocking giveaway to some of the biggest campaign donors in Washington, has little to do with increasing vaccine supplies and could apply even to existing over-the-counter drugs if used in a pandemic. Any conduct less than willingly injuring or killing people appears to be protected from lawsuits for harm ("willful misconduct" is defined as evidence that the drug company had actual knowledge that its product would injure or kill someone). Here's more:

The provision is on pages 423-465 of the Conference Report on HR 2863, Defense Appropriations. Here's an excerpt from a letter consumer groups including USPIRG sent up to the hill last week opposing a still-shocking but slightly less unfair version of the drug company protection proposal.

We recognize the urgent need to prepare adequately for infectious disease outbreaks. It may very well be that during public health emergencies expedited approval of vaccines and drugs is necessary for the nation’s security...Broadly shielding manufacturers from responsibility for gross negligence, recklessness and other egregious behavior and leaving victims with no recourse, may cause more public harm than the pandemic disease itself. As doctors and public health officials have warned, if individuals know there is no remedy for injuries caused by the vaccine’s side effects or by a defective batch of vaccine, they are likely to refuse immunization, thus undermining efforts to contain outbreaks.

According to Rep. David Obey (D-WI), a conferee, Frist's action also was against promises repeatedly made that it would not be included. Obey said in Congress Daily:

"For the last eight hours we have been dealing with a majority leadership that has stripped out of the appropriations process and the conference virtually every understanding in those bills...We've had the United States Senate ram down our throats an ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] provision, and after we were assured in conference there would be no [liability language] three hours after the conference report we get 45 pages..."

Frist had the help of Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK and Chairman of Appropriations Subbcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science), who also has attached PIRG-opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the same bill.