On March 4, 2009, The United States Supreme Court Rejected the Rationale Behind Michigan's Drug Product Lia...( DETROIT March 4 /- On March 4 2009 th...),Health

DETROIT, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 4, 2009, the United States Supreme Court in the case of Wyeth v. Levine, rejected the drug company's argument that because it was complying with FDA standards it should be immune from suit. Because of this decision, citizens in all states except Michigan can continue to sue drug companies whose products injure the citizens of those states.

During the term of former Governor John Engler, the Republican legislature passed a statute granting immunity to companies (drug companies) whose products are approved by the FDA. That statute which denied Michigan citizens the right to sue for injuries sustained from dangerous drugs was believed by drug companies to set a pattern which would allow the drug companies to deny the citizens in the other 49 states the right to sue.

Using the theory of "Federal Pre-emption" Wyeth told the United States Supreme Court that under the law it could not change its labeling to warn people such as Mrs. Levine that the Wyeth drug Phenergan by the iv - push method had the potential of causing serious injuries and death, including amputation, because the FDA laws did not allow such a change in the warnings. The United States Supreme Court found this to be untrue after analyzing the existing laws.

Two editorials in the leading medical journals, Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, both criticized the attempts of the drug companies to seek immunity and encouraged the United States Supreme Court not to recognize Federal Pre-emption if it meant preventing state court actions against drug companies. The authors of these editorials pointed to the numerous drug products where drug companies hid information about the dangers of drugs that was only uncovered and made available to the medical profession by the filing of state lawsuits which allowed state courts to order drug companies to tur
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