Senate Must End MI Immunity Law after Drug Giants Admit Hiding Data
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dan Farough
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 16, 2008 (517) 643-2949
Test results – withheld for a year – show blockbuster drug puts people at risk of heart attacks, strokes
LANSING – Citizens watchdog groups Progress Michigan and Michigan Citizens Action today renewed their call to the Senate to repeal Michigan’s one-of-a-kind drug industry immunity law after two pharmaceutical giants withheld data for more than a year showing that a blockbuster drug had dangerous – and potentially deadly – side effects.
“Every day the Senate stonewalls on repealing Michigan’s outrageous drug industry immunity law means more and more Michigan citizens’ lives are put at risk –and that’s unacceptable,” Progress Michigan Executive Director Dan Farough said. “The drug industry has been caught time and time again hiding important information that can save lives. Drug companies will do anything to protect its massive profits at great cost to the lives of people. It is time to send a clear signal to the drug industry that it cannot put profits ahead of people.”
This week, Merck and Schering-Plough acknowledged that they had withheld results of a study on Vytorin showing patients who took the cholesterol-lowering drug faced an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Vytorin raked in more than $5 billion in sales in 2007 for the two drug giants. Merck manufactures the compound drug Vytorin, which contains Zetia, a drug made by Schering-Plough. Merck is also the maker of Vioxx, the now-banned drug that has been blamed for tens of thousands of hearts attacks and strokes, many of them fatal. The federal Food and Drug Administration approved Zetia in 2002 and Vytorin in 2004, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
In an editorial today, the New York Times wrote: “There have long been suspicions, but it was still very disturbing to learn this week that a heavily promoted cholesterol-lowering drug had flunked a clinical trial of its effectiveness in reducing fatty deposits in arteries. The two companies that reap billions from the drug had been cynically sitting on the results for more than a year.”
“The FDA is clearly broken and the Michigan Senate must give Michigan consumers the tools we need to hold profit-hungry drug companies accountable so we can better protect our loved ones,” Michigan Citizens Action Executive Director Linda Teeter said. “Michigan consumers must not be put at risk from drugs like Vytorin any longer.”
Under Michigan’s 1996 law signed by then-Gov. John Engler, Michigan consumers cannot hold the drug industry accountable when it sells dangerous drugs like Vytorin and Vioxx. A growing groundswell of public outrage has forced attention on Michigan’s drug immunity law. In the current House, representatives made it their first order of business in 2007 to repeal Michigan’s drug immunity law. Sen. Majority Leader Mike Bishop has refused to let the Senate follow the House in repealing the law.
Progress Michigan and Michigan Citizens Action urge citizens to contact legislators and urge them to repeal Michigan’s drug industry immunity law by going to www.progressmichigan.org and www.michcitizenaction.org. ###