Excerpted from The Miami Herald, Wednesday, 26 March 2003.

Supreme Court: Law Limiting Drug Companies' Liability Is Constitutional

Lansing, Amy F. Bailey (AP) -- The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a state law limiting the liability of drug companies is constitutional, reversing decisions by the Michigan Court of Appeals and a circuit court.

The 6-1 ruling stems from lawsuits in Wayne and Washtenaw counties filed against the makers of diet drugs Redux and fen-phen. The drugs were taken off the market in the mid-1990s because they caused heart problems.

American Home Products Corp., Gate Pharmaceuticals, the former SmithKline Beecham PLC - now GlaxoSmithKline, which has U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Philadelphia - and Medeva Pharmaceuticals Inc. are defendants in the lawsuits.

The plaintiffs cited a 1995 Michigan law that prohibits lawsuits against drug makers as long as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined that the drugs are safe. They said the law unconstitutionally takes powers away from the Legislature and delegates them to the FDA.

The Michigan Supreme Court said the statute is a legitimate exercise of legislative authority.

The law "delegates nothing to the FDA; rather, it uses independently significant decisions of the FDA as a measuring device to set the standard of care for manufacturers and sellers of prescription drugs in Michigan," the high court said in its decision.

The Michigan Supreme Court's decision upholds the decision by the Washtenaw Circuit Court, which also found the law constitutional.

The Court of Appeals and the Wayne County Circuit Court said the law is unconstitutional because it improperly delegates state powers to a federal agency.

Supreme Court Justices Clifford Taylor, Maura Corrigan, Michael Cavanagh, Robert Young and Stephen Markman signed the decision. Justice Elizabeth Weaver agreed in result only.

Justice Marilyn Kelly disagreed with the ruling. She argued that the state Legislature's stability is being undermined by the majority's interpretation of the law because the FDA's standards change periodically.

"The foreign body becomes the only authority that approves the changed standards as well as the one that applies them," Kelly said in her dissent. "At that point, it steps into the shoes of the Legislature, making a policy choice for the people of Michigan."

Excerpted from The Miami Herald, Wednesday, 26 March 2003.