Consumer Law

When All Else Fails? Taxes!

By Joe Consumer

As we?ve noted before, Michigan is the only state in the nation that completely immunizes the drug industry for producing dangerous, unsafe FDA-approved drugs.  Even the pro-business U.S. Supreme Court believes a law like this is a bad thing for the country, as they ruled in the 2009 case in Wyeth v. Levine. 

Apparently most lawmakers don?t care that the law has been devastating for Michiganders.   And they don?t care that it failed to accomplish any promised economic benefits for the state ? like jobs.  (Thousands of good paying jobs in the pharmaceutical industry left the state after the law was passed.) 

OK so if basic fairness isn?t working, and the jobs argument isn?t working, what?s it gonna take for Michigan to repeal this law?

Taxes, that?s what!

On Friday, a state appeals court threw out a case that had been brought by the state Attorney General, who was ?trying to recover millions of tax dollars spent on behalf of Medicaid recipients who used Vioxx.?  The Court said that even this kind of case was a "no no" under Michigan?s drug immunity law:

The state said the lawsuit is about false Medicaid claims, not product liability, but judges Henry William Saad and David Sawyer disagreed.

"A court is not bound by a party's choice of labels. . . . Plaintiffs claim that Merck made deceptive statements about the safety and efficacy of Vioxx, and that they would not have paid all or part of the cost of Vioxx prescribed to Michigan Medicaid beneficiaries had Merck not made the allegedly false and deceptive statements," Saad wrote.

As the article notes, ?Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in 2004 after its own research showed the once-blockbuster drug doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke. The company paid $4.85 billion to settle most of the roughly 50,000 lawsuits alleging Vioxx harmed or killed users.?

So here are poor Michigan taxpayers stuck with the bill for all the Medicaid claims.  Must be hard for them to read about how in 2008, 30 states were able to split a $58 million deceptive marketing settlement with Merck over Vioxx. 

Are you made yet, Michiganders?

Full post as published by ThePopTort on March 21, 2011 (boomark / email).