In 2002 alone, the pharmaceutical industry employed 675 lobbyists- the largest lobby in Washington- and spent more than $91 million. According to Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, from 1997 through 2002, the industry spent nearly $478 million on lobbying. See, The Truth About the Drug Companies, Random House Publishing Group, New York, by Marcia Angell, M.D., at p 198. Among these lobbyists were former politicians such as former U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch who opened his own firm and took on clients such as the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. In 2002 alone, drug company lobbyists counted among their ranks 26 former members of Congress and another 342 who had formerly been on congressional staffs or had other connections with government officials. When Republicans rail against attorneys and lawsuits being out of control they are really drawing attention away from something which is far more dangerous to consumers, which is the relationship between government and industry. Tort reform is another way of giving the pharmaceuticals more power and the consumer even less.

The story begins and ends around profit. Since the major pharmaceutical manufacturers are the only entities with the resources to invent new drugs by ploughing millions into research and development, the hope is always that efforts will be made to ensure that viable treatments are developed in the future. The reality is that while deadly diseases such as breast cancer rage on unchecked, the major pharmaceuticals are putting their money into the big three: sex, weight and aging. The evidence against the pharmaceuticals far too often demonstrates campaigns spanning decades, where the benefits of a drug are misrepresented and the risks hidden, for the simple reason that pharmaceutical companies are profit driven and cannot see beyond the cash register. There never seems to be an end to this story, as one bad drug after another is put on the market only to be pulled somewhere down the road, after too many catastrophic injuries and deaths have already occurred. Manufacturers who act with utter disregard for public safety should be held liable for those actions and you had better not hold your breath waiting for the government to step up to the plate in this regard.

The relationship between the government and the pharmaceutical industry is not the only disturbing relationship in this picture. In 1998, a group from the University of Toronto took a look at articles written on drugs and the authors’ financial arrangements with the makers of the drugs. They found a strong association between the authors’ positions on the safety of the drug in question and their financial relationships to the manufacturer of the drug. See, On the Take, How Medicine’s Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health, Oxford University Press, New York, by Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D., at p. 79. Dr. Richard Smith, the editor-in- chief of the British Medical Journal, cited other examples. On the issue of whether third-generation contraceptive pills increase thromboembolic events, studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry found that they do not, and studies funded by public money find that they do. The same was true for reviews on the dangers of passive smoking.

The already entangled relationship between the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry was formalized by Congress when it enacted the Prescription Drug User Fee Act in 1992 which authorized drug companies to fund the very approval process by which the drugs reach the marketplace. Dr. Marcia Angell observed that while these funds were meant to be employed only to expedite approval of drugs, they soon accounted for half the budget of the agency’s drug evaluation center, making the FDA dependent upon the industry it is supposed to regulate. Id. at p. 8, See pp.208- 209. In the decade since this act was instituted, a record thirteen prescription drugs have had to be withdrawn from the market- after causing hundreds of deaths. These statistics do not include the latest withdrawal of Vioxx from the market. This drug alone has likely caused thousands of deaths. As the approval process speeds up, it becomes more likely that more and more dangerous drugs will make it to the marketplace.

Our current administration wants to make it even more difficult to hold large corporations liable for their misconduct. It may seem a remote issue until you or someone you love are injured, then it becomes a whole different story. We certainly recognize that pharmaceutical companies are not all bad and that many drugs on the market are truly a godsend for many people. However, good deeds are no excuse for bad and so called tort reform should be seen for what it is, a way to get pesky consumers off the backs of big corporations, to allow the profit- driven corporations full rein to make money hand over fist at consumers’ expense. To put it bluntly, pharmaceuticals weigh financial gain against a few hundred or thousand injuries and deaths and find even with possible lawsuits which may come down the road, the purse weighs more heavily than the conscience. It is an acceptable price of doing business.

A list of drugs which we are currently accepting cases are as follows:

– Premarin/ Prempro – Lotronex – Abilify
– Vioxx – Remicade – Zyprexa
– Vioxx/ Celebrex/ Bextra – Meridia – Risperdal
– Paxil – Arava – Seroquel
– Effexor – Lindane
– Zelnorm – Levaquin
– Crestor – Actos
– Serzone – Novantrone

See, Public Citizen’s website, www.worstpills.org for information on both Crestor and Serzone, along with an article on direct- to- consumer advertising campaigns of pharmaceutical companies.