Sure It Was Dangerous -- But We Slipped It Past the Regulators

It's called "The Patients First Bill." But it puts Big Pharma first when it comes to bad medicine.

Tucked away in a Congressional plan to cut down on medical malpractice lawsuits is a provision to protect drug maker Merck & Co. They made Vioxx -- the arthritis pain medicine pulled from the market this year for a link to heart attacks. Merck & Co. failed for four years to find in their own test data that the link was there. Then the FDA brass came down hard on one of their scientists who tried to warn Congress of the danger.

Senate Bill 11 failed in the last Congress. But expect it back next year with a GOP majority friendly to the idea of tort reform. Section 7(c) would let Merck & Co. off the hook for pricey punitive lawsuits that might otherwise teach the drug maker not to ignore the dangers their products could present.

The Patients First Bill would prevent patients from suing companies like Merck that manufacture potentially fatal drugs so long as the FDA approved the product. In other words, if a company -- or the FDA -- ran tests that showed a drug was dangerous, but it still got through the approval process, the company couldn't be punished. Interesting, considering the flap with the FDA reportedly trying to keep reports on the dangers of Vioxx from Congress.

Kinda like saying, "I knew robbing the bank was wrong, but the vault door was wide open and the guard was looking the other way."

The Patients First Bill was sponsored in the last congress by Sen John Ensign (R-NV), a veterinarian before he became a Senator. Doubtful many of his patients took Vioxx. (US Government Printing Office)