Cochran Firm Wisconsin Legal Blog

Wisconsin Senator Rich Zipperer said he was doing his best to protect jobs in Wisconsin, but he simply used the so-called "Special Jobs Session" to push forward legislation that steals your rights and protects corporate interests.

Among the many travesties he proposed was SB 13, a bill that would have protected dangerous drug makers and medical device manufacturers from lawsuits based on the injuries or deaths caused by their drugs, even if the drug maker knew the drug was dangerous, concealed information about the drug's dangers, and intimidated critics into silence.

Zipperer and other supporters of the bill claimed that it would have protected jobs in Wisconsin, but offered no evidence of this claim. Perhaps they should have looked to the robust jobs climate in Michigan, the only state that has so far passed such sweeping protections for drug manufacturers.

Michigan passed its prescription drug protection law in 1995 because it believed that such legislation would keep high-paying pharmaceutical drug manufacturers in the state, especially those located in Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo. Before the ink was even dry on the law, Upjohn Corp, one of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers the law was intended to protect, merged with Sweden's Pharmacia Corp. and promptly moved its headquarters out of state, cutting hundreds of jobs in Kalamazoo. But the final axe was saved for Pfizer who acquired Pharmacia and completely closed down the 109-year-old institution in 2003, cutting 1,200 more jobs. It would take $50 million in private contributions to try to replace those jobs, though actual employment as a result of this contribution was only a fraction of what had been removed. Then in 2007, Pfizer cut another 250 jobs in Kalamazoo County and a whopping 2,100 jobs in Ann Arbor.

That's how well Michigan was repaid for protecting drug companies from lawsuits. That's what they got in exchange for thousands of citizens who were unable to receive compensation for serious injuries, permanent disabilities, or the loss of a loved one due to drugs that manufacturers may have known to be dangerous from the beginning.

The problem with bills like this one is that they are built on false logic. Protecting drug companies from lawsuits does not give them an incentive to keep jobs in Wisconsin. The money the company saves from lawsuits could fund a job in Wisconsin. Or it could fund a job in Shanghai or Düsseldorf. Or it could be pocketed as profit, which it probably would be. The pharmaceutical industry reports higher profits than almost any other industry, more than 5 times the average of other industries on the Fortune 500 list. As Pfizer was shutting down its facilities in Kalamazoo, it was pocketing a 21.6% profit, for example.

But the person who is hurt, the person who needs that compensation to pay excess medical bills or needs to make up for lost wages due to disability, that person is in Wisconsin. And when that person is unable to get compensation for his injuries, he will need support from his family and likely W2 and Medicare, which means that you and I will pay to support him through taxes.

We all want to create or maintain jobs in Wisconsin, but this is not the way to do it. Please contact your representatives and senators in the Wisconsin Legislature to tell them you do not support future legislation like this one.

And if you have been hurt by a dangerous or defective drug or medical device, our attorneys are prepared to keep fighting for your rights as we have done for years, and with the additional resources of The Cochran Firm, we hope to be able to do even more. Please schedule a free case evaluation today to learn how we can help you.

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