You think the GIECO Gecko gets a lot of TV air time? Take a look at the lawyers, out fishing for plaintiffs so they can do yet another personal injury case. Lately the lawyers have been advertising for drug company plaintiffs, Avandia and Vioxx and others.
Every time one of these ads run, the cost of health care goes up. The lawyers are looking for plaintiffs claiming injury from FDA approved drugs. The drug companies jump thru a thousand FDA hoops to get the drug approved for sale. Drugs on the market survive a process so rigorous, years of testing, reports, committee meetings, memoes, retests, yada-yada-yada, that any doctor,nurse, or reasonable person will believe they are safe and effective.
And yet, with a sympathetic plaintiff and a wily lawyer, the drug companies still get sued. They obey all the rules, file all the paperwork do everything a responsible corporation ought to do. Does no good, they still get sued. And loose, big.
Vioxx, passed all the FDA tests, got to market. After a few reports of adverse side effects (heart attacks?) surfaced, FDA withdrew the approval of Vioxx. The lawyers closed in and squeezed $4.6 billion in hush money of of the maker. Not sure what happened with Avandia, but the lawyers run ads for Avandia plaintiffs every hour on Fox News.
Congress could fix this. There ought to be a law saying "Manufacture, sale, and presciption of FDA approved drugs and medical devices is never cause for a lawsuit. Manufacturers, drug stores and doctors shall not be punished for making, selling or prescribing FDA approved drugs and devices or complying with FDA regulations such as drug labeling. "
There are a lot of other scams in the malpractice lawsuit racket, but one act of Congress could rule out a big bunch of them.
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