Michiganders may soon be able to sue drug manufacturers, sellers for first time in 28 years
LANSING, Mich. — For nearly the last three decades, residents in Michigan who were harmed by or had loved ones killed by an FDA-approved pharmaceutical drug, they essentially had no legal recourse to seek justice or financial compensation.
In 1995, then-Gov. John Engler, a Republican, signed legislation allowing immunity protections for pharmaceutical companies and sellers of medication.
People whose family members haven’t been killed by pharmaceuticals haven’t been able to hold the companies responsible since, according to Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor.
“When I found out that Michigan was the only state in the union that prevented our citizens access to the courts, access to justice, when they were harmed or killed by a pharmaceutical product, I thought well, this has to change,” Irwin said.
It may soon change.
Irwin spent years working on legislation to get rid of the immunity, eventually introducing Senate Bill 410. That bill was passed out of the Michigan Senate Wednesday by a 30-8 vote with broad bipartisan support.
“This current immunity says that if it’s FDA approved, no matter what the hell happened, that these pharmaceuticals are immune from any wrongdoing,” Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, said in a floor speech ahead of the vote.
Class action lawsuits of the past have bypassed Michigan, whose residents were unable to see the payouts other states received.
“Some of these are big cases that have gotten a lot of news, and some of them are smaller cases where people have been harmed or killed by drugs and they’ve been told by their lawyers, ‘Sorry, in Michigan you just can’t seek justice. Maybe if you were in Ohio or Idaho or any other state, but not in Michigan,'” Irwin said.
According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency, Michigan could not involve itself in major pharma litigation cases from the last few decades, including then-Attorney General Mike Cox’s $20 million lawsuit against Merck in 2011.
Attorney General Dana Nessel’s attempt to hold drug manufacturers accountable for the opioid epidemic was dismissed by a Circuit Court in 2020.
Nessel eventually instituted a novel legal strategy to bypass the immunity protection and successfully join national settlements.
Irwin said he did not believe there would be a way to retroactively receive payouts for opportunities Michiganders had missed because of the law.
Michigan’s pharma immunity protection is the strongest corporate liability shield of its kind in the nation, according to Irwin.
“Michigan has been shut out of millions, probably billions, of dollars as a result of that law,” he said.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce opposes Irwin’s bill. The group believes it would only bring new lawsuits to the state.
Michigan Biosciences Industry Association – or MichBio, which represents pharmaceutical researchers – also outlined its opposition to the bill in a letter to Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit.
“Advocates for repeal would have one believe that pharmaceutical manufacturers – whose work saves millions of lives – are villains. They are not,” the letter from MichBio President and CEO Stephen Rapundalo said.
“The action to repeal tort reform is yet another assault on Michigan’s life sciences industry,” Rapundalo continued. “After many years of investment in cluster growth, it would be a travesty to see it diminish by creating a business environment that unduly burdens our companies, especially small to mid-size ones, with greater liability costs.”
SB 410 now moves to the Michigan House.
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