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Drug Makers May Near Goal of a Legal Shield

By Peopleslawyer

The NYT has posted an insightful article about the realities of preemption, and specifically Johnson & Johnson and its Ortho Evra Patch. The shield is of course preemption.

From the article:

"For years, Johnson & Johnson obscured evidence that its popular Ortho Evra birth control patch delivered much more estrogen than standard birth control pills, potentially increasing the risk of blood clots and strokes, according to internal company documents.

More than 3,000 women and their families have sued Johnson & Johnson, asserting that users of the Ortho Evra patch suffered heart attacks, strokes and, in 40 cases, death. From 2002 to 2006, the food and drug agency received reports of at least 50 deaths associated with the drug.

Documents and e-mail messages from Johnson & Johnson, made public as part of the lawsuits against the company, show that even before the drug agency approved the product in 2001, the company?s own researchers found that the patch delivered far more estrogen each day than low-dose pills. When it reported the results publicly, the company reduced the numbers by 40 percent."

This IMHO is just another example of a drugmaker taking advantage of an overwhelmed system. The FDA is a mess in my view and is barely on top of 20th century advances, much less 21st century ones. In the rarefied air of academia or perhaps pro-business judicial chambers, the FDA works. Not in real life.

From a recent Bloomberg report:

Consumers are likely to die and suffer injuries because of an ``overwhelmed'' U.S. Food and Drug Administration that lacks enough funding, an adviser to the agency told lawmakers.

The FDA isn't inspecting enough manufacturers, has too few scientists who understand new technologies, and regulates a food supply that grows riskier every year, said Gail H. Cassell, an agency adviser who is a member of the FDA's Science Board, in written testimony today to a House subcommittee.

The Science Board adopted a report in December that said the FDA needs more money and better computer systems, and should be restructured to include a scientific leader. The agency, with a budget of more than $2 billion, regulates the sale of more than $1 trillion of products annually, including food, drugs, cosmetics and medical devices.

``Without immediate action, injuries and deaths from an overwhelmed regulatory system are certain, and the costs to our society will be far greater than any dollar figure upon which we can arrive,'' Cassell, vice president of scientific affairs at Eli Lilly & Co., told the investigative subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Science Board report described rapidly developing advances in areas such as genomics, wireless health-care devices and nanotechnology, and said the FDA fails to adequately monitor products because it can't keep up with the science. The FDA suffers ``serious scientific deficiencies,'' the report concluded.

For more go here, which is the source of the article, and here for the Blomberg story.

Full post as published by A Georgia Lawyer on April 08, 2008 (boomark / email).