Republicans are exploiting anxieties about avian flu to quietly pass legislation that shields the drug industry from being held legally accountable when
pandemic flu vaccines and other related pharmaceuticals cause sickness, disability or even death.
Majority Leader Frist has attached this handout provision in a completely unrelated defense spending bill, hoping no one will notice. We're working hard this week to alert the American public and the media to this stealth move by the Frist.
"Under the guise of an impending public health 'emergency,' Sen. Frist is inflicting collateral damage on unsuspecting health care workers and consumers," said Sidney Wolfe, M.D., director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "It is amazing how far he has strayed from the principles of first preventing harm to patients and is instead pandering to special industry interests."
Help us stop Sen. Frist and others from padding drug industry profits at the expense of American consumers. Write to your senator and demand no holiday giveaways to the drug industry!
Take immediate action via Public Citizen, here.
Public Citizen has prepared a press release that examines Frist's proposal in greater detail. Below are the main points:
- Frist wants to shield companies from legal responsibility when their negligence, recklessness, deceptive claims - or even intentional failure to warn users about potential dangers - sicken or kill the people who take their pandemic vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
- Frist's scheme gives innocent victims no means of obtaining compensation.
- Frist's claim that drug companies need the incentive of a liability shield because the vaccine business is not lucrative is patently false.The same companies that would benefit under Frist's plan already are investing heavily in vaccine and antiviral production, lured by the prospect of huge profits driven by global need and the certainty of large government purchases.
- Frist is deceiving the public by not revealing that government indemnification of drug companies already is available under existing law and has been incorporated into recent contracts.