[NVIC] Vaccine Makers Help Write Vaccine Shield Law

[Guest guest]

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION

CENTER

Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

#8122

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

" Protecting the health and informed consent

rights of children since 1982. "

 

================================================================================\

==========

 

 

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006605080356

 

 

 

Vaccine makers helped write Frist-backed shield

law

E-mails reveal private meetings

 

By BILL THEOBALD

Tennessean Washington Bureau

 

Published: Monday, 05/08/06

WASHINGTON - Vaccine industry officials helped

shape legislation behind

the scenes that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist

secretly amended into a

bill to shield them from lawsuits, according to

e-mails obtained by a public

advocacy group.

 

E-mails and documents written by a trade group

for the vaccine-makers show

the organization met privately with Frist's staff

and the White House about

measures that would give the industry protection

from lawsuits filed by

people hurt by the vaccines.

 

The communications were made public in a report

released this week by the

group Public Citizen. Its study follows a

February story in The Tennessean

that Frist, along with House Speaker Dennis

Hastert, R-Ill., ordered the

vaccine liability language inserted in a defense

spending bill in December

without debate and in violation of usual Senate

practice.

 

The group, called the Biotechnology Industry

Organization, wanted such

language in the bill, the e-mails reflect.

 

" At Senator Frist's staff's request, this

morning, BIO (Tom and I)

participated in a meeting with three other

industry representatives (Sanofi

and an outside counsel who works for both Pfizer

and Roche, I believe),

administration staff (HHS, DoJ and WH Leg

Affairs), and Liz Hall to further

discuss liability, " BIO official Dave Boyer wrote

in a November e-mail

obtained by Public Citizen.

 

In a written statement, Frist spokeswoman Amy

Call stated that the senator

had promised publicly to include the vaccine

liability protection in the

defense spending bill. She did not address the

issue of the influence of

industry lobbyists.

 

The statement points out that the Public

Citizen board includes prominent

trial lawyers and liberals. " Trial lawyers oppose

these provisions because

it will strip them of the ability to line their

pockets at the expense of

the American public, " Call said.

 

Frist and the White House reached out to the

industry, according to the

communications cited by Public Citizen, and

Boyer, chief lobbyist for the

industry group, was asked to provide an analysis

of draft legislation.

 

The group asked that the legislation make clear

that a vaccine maker could

only be successfully sued if " willful misconduct "

on its part were proved.

The law includes that standard and says a company

is protected from claims

of negligence or recklessness.

 

The analysis, which Public Citizen quoted from,

included BIO's concerns

that the draft bill would have still allowed

people hurt by vaccines to get

jury trials.

 

" The lack of any restriction on jury trial is

problematic, " the analysis

said. " Where injured parties have no other avenue

for relief, juries are

likely to find ways to award damages. "

 

In another e-mail, Boyer described a meeting in

which a deputy of Bush

strategist Karl Rove said it was " important to

the President that a bill

move this year, " and said " they had invited

industry to discuss what they

understood to be a few key remaining points " of

contention.

 

" The intimacy of this, we think, is quite

unusual, " said Joan Claybrook,

president of Public Citizen, about the

relationship between the

organization's lobbyists, Frist and the Bush

administration. " We think it is

an interesting case study of how the inside

operation works in Washington. "

 

In a January interview with The Tennessean,

Frist denied the vaccine

liability provisions were added improperly.

Later, when others challenged

his version of events, Call simply restated

Frist's commitment to protecting

people from a bioterror emergency.

 

Frist and other backers say the law is needed

to boost the number of

vaccine makers. Vaccine shortages during last

year's flu season along with

fears of a pandemic of bird flu or a bioterror

attack have prompted interest

in building up the country's lagging vaccine

industry. The legal protections

kick in only when the secretary of health and

human services declares a

public health emergency.

 

Alan Eisenberg, executive vice president for

the Biotechnology Industry

Organization, said the group's " staff acted with

the utmost integrity and

professionalism, as they do on all issues. "

 

" BIO staff regularly comment on proposed

legislation from, and meet with,

Democrat and Republican lawmakers and their

staffs alike all the time, "

Eisenberg said.

 

 

ACTIONS SPARKED BY VACCINE LIABILITY LAW What has

happened since the vaccine

liability measure passed Congress and was signed

into law:

� In February, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and

19 other congressional

Democrats sent a letter to Sen. Bill Frist,

R-Tenn., and Rep. Dennis

Hastert, R-Ill., asking that they repeal the

vaccine law.

� On Wednesday, the Senate approved a

Kennedy-authored amendment to an

emergency spending bill for Iraq and hurricane

victims that provides $289

million for a compensation fund established in

the Frist legislation for

people injured by vaccines.

 

 

=============================================

News is a free service of the National

Vaccine Information

Center and is supported through membership

donations. Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how

to protect your informed consent rights

http://www.nvic.org

 

Become a member and support NVIC's work

 

https://www.nvic.org/making%20cash%20donations.htm

 

To sign up for a free e-mail subscription

http://www.nvic.org/emaillist.htm

 

To from this list, please go to

http://nvic.org/emaillistunsub.htm or send an

email to news-request and type UNSUBSCRIBE

in the body of the email.

 

NVIC is funded through individual membership

donations and does not receive government funding.

Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-founder.

NOTE: This is not an interactive e-mail list.

Please do not respond to messages.

 

 

" To be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to

make me everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being

can fight, and never stop fighting. " -e.e. cummings-