Liability Protection for Pharmaceutical Companies???

The New York Times has it right. Here's what they said today in their editorial page:

Republicans are using the last days of this Congressional session to try to grant extraordinary liability protection to the drug companies that will make the vaccines and other medicines to combat a possible influenza pandemic. But they have been slow to mount a comparable effort to help the people who may be harmed by adverse side effects.

Although liability protection is being portrayed as a vital step in carrying out the president's $7 billion flu pandemic plan, it serves a political purpose as well. The insulation against liability looks
suspiciously like an effort to reward the drug companies, which help bankroll Republicans, and punish the trial lawyers, who help bankroll Democrats.

Some form of liability protection is clearly needed, if only to allay the concerns of drug company
executives worried about lawsuits. We know how to provide sensible liability protection and have done so for routine childhood immunizations, and for the national swine flu vaccination campaign of 1976 and the smallpox vaccination effort two years ago. But each time individuals had a mechanism to seek compensation, and often, if warranted, the government could sue the manufacturers.
For a pandemic, however, Republican leaders would allow suits only if there was willful misconduct. The companies could be reckless or grossly negligent and escape responsibility. As for victims' compensation, the Republicans have been vague and secretive, but claim that they will produce a fair and robust compensation system. Their provision is expected to be attached to a defense appropriations bill that is now before a conference committee and, once approved,
cannot be amended on the floor. The conferees ought to shun that provision and leave the complexities to fuller discussion early next year.