It seems like every few days I hear a new ad on the radio or TV that goes something like this:
“Have you or someone you know ever used (insert name of drug here)? If so, you might be eligible to receive monetary compensation. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against (insert pharmaceutical company’s name here) for damages caused by the use of this medication. But you must act now to protect your rights! Call the law offices of (insert ambulance-chasing lawyer’s name here) today at 1-800-xxx-xxxx to have your name added to the list of plaintiffs.”
Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly have no interest in seeing our pharmacy shelves flooded with dangerous or ineffective products, but the litigation that we’re seeing today is both excessive and immoral in my opinion. Drugs that have been helping millions of people for decades are now being blamed, rightly or wrongly, for causing problems stemming from side-effects that didn’t show up during the testing and approval phases. I believe it is both unfair and unwise for us Americans to go after the drug makers seeking potentially bankrupting judgments for these types of unforeseen problems.
If the Food and Drug Administration approves the sale and use of a drug after independent clinical trials prove it to be effective with relatively few and manageable side-effects, then the company that makes it should not be held liable in the future for any problems that arise years down the road. After all, they conduct medical research, not consultations with a crystal ball. Of course if there is wrong-doing that clearly leads to a drug being approved when it should not have been, that would be a different story, and I would say go after the guilty party(s) for everything they are worth.
You see, most everything in life involves a certain amount of risk. For example, there’s a very small, but very real risk that a child will have a severe reaction and die the first time he or she eats a bag of peanuts, but we don’t let that acceptable risk stop us from letting them try peanuts. And the same holds true for medications.
Our bodies all react a little differently to drugs, and any drug on the market today has probably caused at least a few deaths on occasion, and that includes the old stand-by aspirin. But by and large, the good that most drugs do usually far outweighs the small amount of risk involved in using them. Flu shots kill a small percentage of the people that receive them every year, but you’ll find me at the head of the line to get one come fall.
If we’re wise, we’ll put a stop to all of these witch hunts that the trial lawyers are getting rich from before the drug makers either go out of business altogether or stop researching and making new drugs. Would you like to see a cure for cancer, diabetes or Alzheimer’s some day? How about an effective vaccine for the HIV virus? Yeah, me too. But don’t count on seeing them any time soon if the pharmaceutical companies decide that the only way to remain in business is to only manufacture and distribute drugs that have long and safe track records. My dad used to use the term “cutting off your nose to spite your face”, and it seems quite appropriate here.
I believe it’s time for Congress to enact legislation that provides pharmaceutical companies with immunity from lawsuits over the manufacture and distribution of drugs that cause side effects that don’t show up until after the drug has been tested and approved by the FDA (assuming there was no wrong-doing during the testing and approval process). In my opinion, anything less is simply immoral, and actually quite dangerous.
Disclaimer: This article simply states an opinion – mine. I don’t claim to be a medical expert, and I have no ties, financial or otherwise, to any pharmaceutical company other than seeing my life and the lives of many of the people I love change for the better after going on various beneficial medications.