When Robert Wiltjer hurt his back at work in 2000, his doctors gave him Celebrex for the pain. When the otherwise healthy Boyne City machinist suffered a stroke four years later at age 56, he didn’t think it might be due to his medication, said his wife, Leslee.
But in 2005 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Pfizer Inc. to place a black-box warning on Celebrex – the most severe warning category short of pulling the drug from the market.
The couple saw an ad on TV encouraging anyone who had suffered side-effects from the drug to call about joining a class-action lawsuit.
“As soon as it was on TV it was like, `Wasn’t that what you were taking?’” Leslee Wiltjer said.
Continued – Still, the Wiltjers “kind of blew it off,” she said. But Robert Wiltjer’s recovery was slow. It prevented him from doing the things he enjoyed, like hunting, fishing and vacationing with his family. And it kept him off the job, forcing the family to heavily tap its savings. The Wiltjers’ two children encouraged their parents to call the number in the ad.
“We got a nice letter back saying, `We’re sorry for your husband’s stroke, but you live in Michigan. There’s nothing anyone can do for you unless you live outside of Michigan,’” Leslee Wiltjer said
That’s because Michigan is the only state in the country that bars its residents from suing to hold a drug company accountable when its products cause harm, even death.
In 1996 then-Gov. John Engler signed the law, passed by the Republican-led Legislature. Its supporters argued that the law would lead to lower drug prices, encourage drug companies’ investment in Michigan and create jobs.
“I was instantly appalled,” Wiltjer said of being told she and her husband could not seek recourse for his suffering. “I’m an American. That’s a constitutional right, due process.”
Since the law’s passage, Michigan residents who have taken drugs linked to adverse side-effects — like Vioxx, Celebrex and Rezulin — have tried to join class-action lawsuits against their makers, only to have their claims tossed out because of Michigan’s law. In November, Merck and Co., the maker of Vioxx, announced a $4.85 billion settlement in a lawsuit over the drug that involved 47,000 victims. Michigan residents are excluded from the settlement. Vioxx has been tied to risk of heart attack and stroke, Rezulin to liver damage.
After winning back the House in 2006, Democrats quickly passed a bill to repeal drug industry immunity. But the measure has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
After being told she had no legal recourse, Wiltjer began contacting northern Michigan legislators. State Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Rudyard, who sponsored the House bills to repeal the law, spent an afternoon with the Wiltjers at their home.
“I saw firsthand the adverse affect from those drugs,” McDowell said. “They were told at any time [Robert] could have a stroke that could end his life or leave him totally disabled. They have two children, and they see their father totally different now.
“They had nowhere else to turn,” he said. “In any other state they could hold this drug company accountable.”
Public pressure to repeal the law hasn’t been able to outweigh pharmaceutical companies’ influence, McDowell said. When he introduced the repeal legislation, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce immediately sent out five mailings in his district saying he was anti-jobs, but not specifically referencing drug industry immunity.
“It was a strong message to the legislators of Michigan saying, `If you go against the pharmaceutical companies, this is what you can expect,’” he said.
The argument that creating a friendly environment for drug companies will bring investment and jobs to Michigan and lower drug prices is “absolutely bogus,” McDowell said.
“We’ve had just the opposite. Michigan gave up the right to hold drug companies accountable and we’ve received no benefit at all.” In fact Pfizer announced in January 2007 that it was cutting some 2,400 jobs in Michigan and closing facilities in Ann Arbor, Plymouth Township and Kalamazoo.
Senate Republicans and other supporters of Michigan’s unique law say it prevents frivolous lawsuits. State Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, a physician, has said that Michigan residents harmed by prescription drugs should sue the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which must approve a prescription drug before it can go on the market.
Leslee Wiltjer has little patience for such arguments.
“Just because you file suit doesn’t mean you’re going to get a penny – you still have to prove it,” she said. “Look me in the eye, look my kids in the eye and say their father’s life has been reduced to frivolous. That’s pretty heartless.”
