[NVIC] Vaccine Makers Blackmail Congress

[Guest guest]

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

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UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

#8122

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" Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982. "

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BL Fisher Note:

Drug companies making vaccines have used blackmail tactics before to try to

bully Congress into letting them off the hook for vaccine injuries and

deaths. They did it in the 1970's with the bogus swine flu scare that

convinced Congress to immunize companies from all liability for the hastily

prepared swine flu vaccine that ended up brain damaging many Americans, few

of whom ever got the promised " government compensation " they were supposed

to get.

Vaccine makers blackmailed Congress in the 1980's, threatning to leave the

nation without any childhood vaccines if they were not given protection from

lawsuits on behalf of children brain damaged from the highly reactive whole

cell DPT vaccine. Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act

of 1986 that eliiminated almost all liability for doctors and vaccine

manufacturers. It worked: there were four drug companies marketing vaccines

in the U.S. in 1982 (Wyeth, Lederle, Merck, Connaught) and today that number

has doubled to eight (Wyeth, Merck, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoKline,

Medimmune, Chiron, Bioport, Vaxgen).

Now big Pharma wants to cut off citizen access to the judicial system if

they are harmed by experimental or licensed vaccines potentially mandated to

be used whenever the Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a

public health emergency and Governors follow suit (see NVIC letter to Senate

staffer Kadlec at www.nvic.org). The Pharma bail-out by Congress will result

in vaccine casualties who will be left to fend for themselves for the rest

of their lives long after the " emergency " is over.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602

238.html

The Washington Post

Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page D01

Vaccine Funding Tied to Liability

Trial Lawyers Say Move Would Hurt Consumers

By H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writer

Legislation that would pour billions of dollars into the production of

vaccines against avian flu and other pandemic diseases is threatened by the

trial lawyers' lobby, which objects to proposed limits onlawsuits against

drug manufacturers.

Republican congressional leaders, acting at the urging of President Bush,

hope to approve a measure soon that would appropriate about $7 billion to

pay for vaccines that would combat a flu epidemic and biological attacks by

terrorists. The bill could begin moving on Capitol Hill this week.

But the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and some of its Democratic

allies in Congress are working to scuttle or drastically transform the

effort, asserting that anti-lawsuit language in the bill would so broadly

indemnify pharmaceutical companies against suits that consumers' rights

would be denied.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the Senate's chief advocate for strict liability

protections, asserted that the companies need to be thoroughly indemnified

against suits to provide enough of an incentive for them to make vaccines,

which tend to be low-profit products.

The conflict will almost certainly lead to fireworks during debate on the

floor of the House and the Senate and could delay the legislation itself,

which is a Bush priority, lobbyists and congressional aides said.

" A slowdown is possible, " said Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority

Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who supports strict lawsuit limitations.

" That's the way the place works. "

Neither side appears willing to bend, and negotiations about the provision

lately have been among Republicans only. Democrats are complaining bitterly

about being cut out of the process and are working hard to stop the measure.

" The Republican leadership in Congress is trying to do another special favor

for drug companies by slipping a provision into a massive spending bill to

absolve the pharmaceutical industry of any responsibility to patients

injured by dangerous drugs or vaccines, " Sen. M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)

said. " It's cynical to claim that this is what's needed to deal with avian

flu. "

Sen. J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said: " We all share the goal of

protecting the American people. But I'm alarmed that such a critical

question . . . is being handled with a backroom deal. "

He and Kennedy also said people might refuse to take a vaccine without an

effective compensation program for people who get injured. They asserted

that the Republican provision does not contain an adequate plan to

compensate such people.

ATLA and its Democratic supporters believe that the pending provision,

drafts of which have been circulating informally on Capitol Hill, would stop

a wide variety of lawsuits against drugmakers, including those that target

drugs other than vaccines. The lobby has long fought such broad

restrictions.

Republicans deny that the provision is that far-reaching. But they are also

determined to press on with a tough liability provision that the trial

lawyers would almost certainly reject. Republican lawmakers and

pharmaceutical representatives contend that without strong limits on

lawsuits, drug companies will not produce the vaccines.

" You're not going to get vaccine production in the U.S. unless you have

liability protection, " Gregg said in a telephone interview. " The risk of a

major liability suit far outweighs the potential rate of return that you'd

get on the investment. "

The drug companies, some of which have been working closely with Gregg on

the legislation, agreed. " Full liability protection is a requirement for our

participation in the development and production of a pandemic vaccine, " said

Len Lavenda, spokesman for Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine-making unit of

Sanofi-Aventis Group.

Republicans, who are still devising the legislation's liability section,

also accuse Democrats of playing politics with public health. " Democrats in

the past have always stood up with the trial lawyers, " said Call, Frist's

spokeswoman. " We'll see if they stand up for them or for the American

people. "

Contrary to ATLA's assertions, Call said the wording under discussion would

affect only companies that manufacture vaccines that counter pandemics

officially declared national emergencies.

If the secretary of health and human services certifies such a disaster, she

said, patient lawsuits would be restricted to those that claim the companies

willfully engaged in misconduct. Lesser allegations would be disallowed as a

reason to sue, she said.

ATLA and Republican lawmakers have been sparring for months over how best to

deal with lawsuits against vaccine producers. ATLA and its Democratic

backers have wanted the language to be narrowly drawn; Republican leaders

and pharmaceutical firms have been pushing for wider restrictions.

Republican leaders are considering attaching the latest pandemic provision

to any of a several appropriations bills that constitute " must pass "

legislation this year. Their options include bills that fund the Department

of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, staffers said.

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GOP pushes vaccine liability shield

Alonso-Zaldivar

Los Angeles Times

Nov. 17, 2005 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers are moving swiftly to enact one part of

President Bush's flu plan, a liability shield for vaccine manufacturers,

while issues such as compensation for people injured by adverse reactions

and even funding for the proposal remain unresolved.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., wants to attach the liability

protections to a must-pass spending bill slated for quick action,

spokeswoman Amy Call said Wednesday. That would bypass the cumbersome

process of committee hearings and floor deliberations in each chamber.

But Frist's proposal does not include a compensation program for victims,

and the House and the Senate disagree over how to pay for Bush's plan.

The president has asked for $7 billion in emergency funding to increase

vaccine production and stockpile anti-viral drugs against the threat of a

worldwide pandemic. Influential Republicans in the House want the funds to

come from cuts in other programs.

The legislative maneuvering over liability protections has enraged

Democrats, who have managed to block limits on jury awards in medical

malpractice cases - a cornerstone of the GOP agenda at the beginning of this

year.

And it has raised concerns among public health advocates, who fear that

national preparations for a possible flu pandemic could be set back by

partisan warfare over the perennially contentious issue of liability.

" To have the liability protections sitting out there without the funds to

enhance vaccine production capacity is just not acceptable in this country, "

said Kim Elliott, deputy director of the Trust for America's Health, a

non-profit advocacy group.

The liability protections would only apply to vaccines and other medicines

against pandemic flu or to a pathogen that might be used in a bio-terror

attack, Call said.

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