Dennis Quaid Sues Baxter International Inc.

-eNews 2.0

05/15/2008 - Actor Dennis Quaid urged Congress on Wednesday not to deprive people of the right to sue pharmaceutical companies in case of discontent with their products.

The actor told the Congress about the accidental drug overdose that almost killed his newborn twins last year.

Quaid and his wife have filed a lawsuit against Baxter International Inc, the maker of the blood-thinner given to their twins in a hospital last year. The couple asserts that the product was kept in bottles with confusing labels that lead to the overdose. They think the product should have been withdrawn, especially taking into consideration the fact that three other infants died from a confusion of the sort.

Baxter stated Wednesday that the overdose was a result of the personnel’s error and had nothing to do with the quality of their products. As regards the three infants who died in an Indianapolis hospital, the company said it consulted the FDA after recording the case. Afterwards, it sent a nationwide alert to notify clinicians that its product had been involved in a medication error.

The pharmaceutical producer also asserted that before the Indianapolis case, there were no complaints about an eventual similarity between the two versions of the heparin packaging.

More recently, Baxter withdrew the blood thinner, which contained ingredients from China, after the drug was linked to 81 deaths and 785 severe allergic reactions.

After substantial analyses, the FDA stated the drug was contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which mimics heparin and thus was not detected in routine testing.

The Food and Drug Administration, under the Republican George W. Bush administration, has pleaded for preemption. At the hearing, a senior official said the Republicans were not the first ones to support this position. Federal preemption is seen by the actual administration as a way to limit costly litigation and encourage innovation.

"I believe if preemption of lawsuits is allowed to prevail, it will basically make all of us, the public, uninformed and uncompensated lab rats," said Quaid, as cited by Reuters.

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