Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3601

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Chodock R, Yolkut D, Connolly DR.
"Insuring" the continued solvency of pharmaceutical companies in the face of product liability class actions
Tort Trial Insur Pract Law J 2005 Spr 01; 40:(3):997-1017

Abstract:

Costly product liability lawsuits continue to plague the pharmaceutical industry, and insurance to cover these losses is severely inadequate. Furthermore, questionable regulation of drugs exists once a pharmaceutical has passed FDA approval. This article describes a plan that uses a capitalistic, rather than a governmental, approach to solve both the insurance and the quality control problems. Although the proposed plan has never been used to insure pharmaceutical companies, different permutations of it have been used to insure other litigation-prone industries. Success from the proposed insurance entity results from the combined knowledge of scientists and actuaries to provide both protection from product liability lawsuits for the pharmaceutical industry and enhanced post-market surveillance of pharmaceuticals.

Keywords:
Compensation and Redress Consumer Product Safety/legislation & jurisprudence* Drug Approval Drug Industry/economics Drug Industry/legislation & jurisprudence* Federal Government Humans Insurance Coverage/economics Insurance Coverage/legislation & jurisprudence Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services/economics Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services/legislation & jurisprudence* Legislation, Drug/economics Liability, Legal Models, Organizational Pharmaceutical Preparations Private Sector/legislation & jurisprudence United States United States Food and Drug Administration