Brief Summary
If there’s one industry that has an obligation to tell the truth, it’s the prescription drug industry. Yet when drug-maker Merck discovered that its painkilling drug Vioxx dramatically increased the risk of heart attack and stroke, it suppressed the information. Within five years, an estimated 140,000 Americans had suffered heart disease due to their use of Vioxx and an estimated 55,000 died.

What makes this all the more troubling is that even though the Vioxx scandal has made headlines for months, Washington officials show little inclination to change the rules and force drug companies to disclose the truth before people suffer.

The pharmaceutical industry is a powerful player in Washington, D.C., contributing $17 million to federal candidates in 2004 alone and chipping in another $7.3 million for the parties’ conventions. The industry also spent $158 million on lobbying in 2004, employing more than two lobbyists for every member of Congress.

Perhaps that’s why the industry has legal privileges that few, if any, other industries enjoy, including extended patents on new products, protection from all foreign competition, and prohibitions against the government even attempting to negotiate lower prices for seniors in the Medicare program.

Perhaps that’s also why, despite congressional investigations exposing Merck’s failure to tell the whole truth, most experts predict that neither the Bush administration’s FDA nor Congress will change the rules governing disclosure of clinical trial results.

Michigan consumers deserve the right-to-know how the prescription drugs they depend on can adversely effect them. Additionally, they need to be able to afford the drugs that they rely on to live healthy lives.

Resources
• Prescription Drug Buying Pools
• MiRx Card: provides a discount for low and middle income families