Thoughts on Vioxx

The Vioxx debacle should teach us a few things:

1. Corporations will sell products that kill people if the product is profitable.  Such is the way of the capitalist system.  (And I support that system.)
2. According to this article the FDA is helpless, clueless, and toothless.
3. It would be a very, very bad idea to pass legislation that bars lawsuits against a pharmaceutical if the drug in question passed FDA tests. 

This article, however, shows that the Bush administration has changed existing Justice Department policy, and hopes to prevent lawsuits against drug manufacturers if the FDA approved the drug:

"The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice Department acknowledges that this position reflects a "change in governmental policy," and it has persuaded some judges to accept its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.

Allowing consumers to sue manufacturers would "undermine public health" and interfere with federal regulation of drugs and devices by encouraging "lay judges and juries to second-guess" experts at the FDA, the government said in siding with the maker of a heart pump sued by the widow of a Pennsylvania man."

I think there's a typo in that article, though. I'd put quotes around "experts" in the phrase "experts at the FDA."