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In what could be called
the biggest case of child poisoning of all time, a multitude of lawsuits
have been filed against drug companies accusing them of failing to
inform doctors and patients how much mercury was contained in their
vaccines - until 1997 when Congress ordered the FDA to implement
warnings about the potential for Thimerosal mercury posioning.
Defendants for these mercury poisoning claims presently include, among
others, the following drug companies:
Aventis Pasteur
Inc.
Pasteur Merieux Connaught
Pfizer Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck & Co.
Abbott Laboratories
American Home Products |
Wyeth-Ayerst
Laboratories
Lederle Laboratories
Baxter International Inc.
Integra Chemical Co.
Sigma Chemical Co.
Aldrich Chemical Co. |
Eli Lilly & Co., the producer of thimerosal, had until recently been
excluded from these lawsuits because President Bush signed into law a
section of the Homeland Security Bill which for some reason included a
provision that protected Eli Lilly & Co. from thimerosal poisoning
lawsuits. Nobody in the government would admit authorship of this aspect
of the bill, perhaps because it was essentially ‘snuck in’ to a bill
that, in the shadow of 9/11, was never likely to be voted down. More
recently, others in the political arena demanded that this section of
the law be rescinded, leading to the following landmark reversal.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A controversial measure protecting companies from
lawsuits from families blaming their children's autism on a vaccine
preservative will be repealed under a massive spending bill Congress
passed late Thursday. The provision shielded manufacturers such as Eli
Lilly and Co. from being sued over harm caused by a mercury-based
vaccine ingredient called thimerosal. Supporters said the liability
protections were necessary because lawsuits alleging harm from
thimerosal have bypassed a federal vaccine injury compensation fund set
up in 1986. The fund was established in part to encourage companies to
stay in the vaccine business because vaccines benefit the public good.
Lilly argued that lawsuits alleging injury due to vaccine ingredients
should also go through the federal fund. The provision to protect
companies from being sued over vaccine ingredients had passed Congress
as one of several measures tucked into last year's homeland security
legislation at the last minute, sparking an uproar that nearly derailed
that bill.
"This provision was
added in the dark of night, clearly as a payback to powerful political
supporters, and it had no place in legislation intended to protect
American families," said Michigan Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who
had pushed for the repeal. The spending bill passed Thursday repealed
that language. Lilly had argued that the congressional measure would
protect vaccine makers from meritless lawsuits. "We're disappointed
by the decision to repeal the vaccine ingredient provision. However, we
agree that process by which the legislation was enacted was not
desirable," Sagebiel said.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
So
what does this mean to you? It means that right now is the perfect time
for YOU to talk to a lawyer and decide whether you have a case against
the companies that are responsible for Thimerosal poisoning.
Click here
to request to talk to an expert attorney about Thimerosal poisoning.
Do I have a Thimerosal poisoning case?
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