Actor Dennis Quaid urged Congress on Wednesday not to
deprive people of the right to sue pharmaceutical companies in case of
discontent with their products.
The actor told the Congress about the accidental drug
overdose that almost killed his newborn twins last year.
Quaid and his wife have filed a lawsuit against Baxter
International Inc, the maker of the blood-thinner given to their twins in a
hospital last year. The couple asserts that the product was kept in bottles
with confusing labels that lead to the overdose. They think the product should
have been withdrawn, especially taking into consideration the fact that three
other infants died from a confusion of the sort.
Baxter stated Wednesday that the overdose was a result of
the personnel’s error and had nothing to do with the quality of their products. As regards the three infants who died in an
Indianapolis hospital, the company said it consulted the FDA after recording
the case. Afterwards, it sent a nationwide alert to notify clinicians that its
product had been involved in a medication error.
The pharmaceutical producer also asserted that before the
Indianapolis case, there were no complaints about an eventual similarity
between the two versions of the heparin packaging.
More recently, Baxter withdrew the blood thinner, which
contained ingredients from China, after the drug was linked to 81 deaths and
785 severe allergic reactions.
After substantial analyses, the FDA stated the drug was
contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which mimics heparin and
thus was not detected in routine testing.
The Food and Drug Administration, under the Republican
George W. Bush administration, has pleaded for preemption. At the hearing, a
senior official said the Republicans were not the first ones to support this
position. Federal preemption is seen by the actual administration as a way to
limit costly litigation and encourage innovation.
"I believe if preemption of lawsuits is allowed to
prevail, it will basically make all of us, the public, uninformed and
uncompensated lab rats," said Quaid, as cited by Reuters.
