LANSING, Mich. (March 18, 2022) — Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) has introduced legislation, supported by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, that allows consumers to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible when their products harm them.
Senate Bill 961 will repeal a provision of the Product Liability Act, a law Michigan adopted in 1995, that provides immunity for drug manufacturers. By increasing accountability, Sen. Irwin’s bill will also improve the safety of drugs.
“Years ago, our legislature took away our right to sue drug manufacturers when their product hurts or kills them or their loved ones,” Sen. Irwin said. “This is bad policy and it’s only hurting our state.”
Under Michigan’s current Product Liability Act, a drug is not considered defective or unreasonably dangerous, and the manufacturer and seller cannot be liable in a product liability suit if that drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is the nation’s strictest product liability law and grants pharmaceutical companies near absolute immunity from lawsuits.
“Michigan is an outlier when it comes to the barriers that exist to holding drug manufacturers and distributors accountable,” Attorney General Nessel said. “I fully support this legislature taking action to repeal the drug immunity law. No company should be permitted to avoid responsibility for products that negatively impact Michigan consumers.”
While Michigan is set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from opioid settlements, Michigan’s existing law is preventing the state from individually suing pharmaceutical distributors — such as Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen — and opioid manufacturers — including Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma — in state court for their role in creating the opioid epidemic.
The law has also prevented individuals and groups from filing class-action lawsuits against these corporations for aggressively promoting their products and falsely claiming that their drugs were not addictive. In 2001, Michigan residents were prevented from suing American Home Products Corporation, the maker of fen-phen, a diet drug that caused heart disease. Then in 2004, a Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Michigan could not sue Merck, the maker of Vioxx, an anti-arthritis drug that caused serious heart and other health problems.
Further, Michigan’s Product Liability Act is holding the State of Michigan back from suing and recouping enormous economic losses, and holding these corporations accountable for the human suffering and losses that have resulted from the opioid epidemic, which has had a devastating impact:
- 20,182 Michiganians have died from opioid overdoses since 2000.
- Also, since 2000, there have been 30,232 opioid-related hospitalizations in Michigan.
- Michigan has an 81,000-estimated case count of opioid use disorder.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that opioid use disorder has cost Michigan $17.918 billion.
- The CDC also estimates that fatal opioid overdose has cost Michigan $23.477 billion.
- In 2017, the CDC had estimated that the U.S. economic cost of opioid use disorder ($471 billion) and fatal opioid overdose ($550 billion) totaled $1.021 trillion.
“We need to change our laws,” Sen. Irwin said. “Michigan is losing out on potentially billions of dollars that could be used for treatment and rehabilitation. People who lost loved ones would, at least, have a route to hold these corporations accountable for their suffering.”
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