The conservative Federalist Society held a little pow-wow yesterday to strategize about “federal 
preemption” - immunity for corporations that produce unsafe products - which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected earlier this year.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for the discussion to go off the rails, thanks to panel member Daniel Troy, Chief Counsel at the FDA from 2001 to 2004, who prior to that, represented pharmaceutical and tobacco companies in cases against the agency, and who ultimately became one of the major architects behind the whole cockamamie version of preemption which had federal agencies protecting industry from liability rather than the other way around, and was ultimately rejected by the Supremes in Wyeth.
According to Troy, who now works as General Counsel for pharma-giant GlaxoSmithKline, “[O]ne reason for the delay in swine flu vaccine to the public this year has been manufacturers' fear about litigation over thimerisol, a preservative he said is needed to safeguard multi-dose vials of the vaccine,” and has been the source of heated controversy among many who feel it can contribute to the development of autism.
Ugh! Where to start with such an outrageous “don’t blame us, it’s those victims, judges, and juries again” comment???
First of all, the notion that drug companies are trembling in the boots over the prospect of vaccine lawsuits is patently absurd. Ever since Congress created special “vaccine courts” in 1986, taking away the right to jury trial against drug companies for families with children injured by vaccines, the road to justice for those folks has been anything but wide open.
Secondly, talk about not taking responsibility. Every health official who knows anything about this knows that the companies providing the “bulk” of H1N1 vaccines to the U.S., like his, are still using snail-paced technology to create vaccines (i.e., “a slow and antiquated process that relies on millions of chicken eggs”).
"We wish we had better ways to produce vaccines perfectly predictably, but this is how influenza vaccine production often goes," Dr. Anne Schuchat, who heads the immunization and respiratory disease section at the Centers for Disease Control an Prevention, said last week.
Just another example about how Big Business and their lawsuit obsessions are harming the public good.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for the discussion to go off the rails, thanks to panel member Daniel Troy, Chief Counsel at the FDA from 2001 to 2004, who prior to that, represented pharmaceutical and tobacco companies in cases against the agency, and who ultimately became one of the major architects behind the whole cockamamie version of preemption which had federal agencies protecting industry from liability rather than the other way around, and was ultimately rejected by the Supremes in Wyeth.
According to Troy, who now works as General Counsel for pharma-giant GlaxoSmithKline, “[O]ne reason for the delay in swine flu vaccine to the public this year has been manufacturers' fear about litigation over thimerisol, a preservative he said is needed to safeguard multi-dose vials of the vaccine,” and has been the source of heated controversy among many who feel it can contribute to the development of autism.
Ugh! Where to start with such an outrageous “don’t blame us, it’s those victims, judges, and juries again” comment???
First of all, the notion that drug companies are trembling in the boots over the prospect of vaccine lawsuits is patently absurd. Ever since Congress created special “vaccine courts” in 1986, taking away the right to jury trial against drug companies for families with children injured by vaccines, the road to justice for those folks has been anything but wide open.
Secondly, talk about not taking responsibility. Every health official who knows anything about this knows that the companies providing the “bulk” of H1N1 vaccines to the U.S., like his, are still using snail-paced technology to create vaccines (i.e., “a slow and antiquated process that relies on millions of chicken eggs”).
"We wish we had better ways to produce vaccines perfectly predictably, but this is how influenza vaccine production often goes," Dr. Anne Schuchat, who heads the immunization and respiratory disease section at the Centers for Disease Control an Prevention, said last week.
The delays have led to renewed demands for a quicker, more reliable way of producing vaccines than the chicken-egg method, which is "50-year-old technology and involves injecting the virus into eggs and allowing it to feed on the nutrients in the egg white."
Clearly the solutions lie with better technology. But with the "Daniel Troys" of the world trying to shift the blame to a non-existent lawsuit problem instead of dealing with a technology problem that needs a major overhaul, we all may suffer.Just another example about how Big Business and their lawsuit obsessions are harming the public good.
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