More on the Wyeth Decision
March 16, 2009
Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley has an important article on last week’s Wyeth decision. Read the whole piece, but here are some highlights:
“The flaws of litigation as a method of making important government decisions are well rehearsed. It is ungodly expensive: The lawyers typically cost more than even the most worthy plaintiff ever gets. It is arbitrary: The same issues get litigated again and again, usually with a different result each time. Most people who suffer never sue and get nothing. While the FDA has scientists, the courts have jurors, for whom ignorance of the subject at hand is not merely the norm but a virtual requirement. And because trials only occur when a risk has gone wrong, they inevitably overemphasize the risk and undervalue the benefit. Why did Levine return to the hospital for a second time the same day? After long spasms of retching and vomiting, she was desperate for a treatment like Phenergan.”