Subj : Re: Um...no comment?
To   : Angus McLeod
From : Mrproper
Date : Sun Sep 18 2005 10:23 am

  Re: Re: Um...no comment?
  By: Angus McLeod to Frank Reid on Sun Sep 18 2005 00:22:00

 >   Re: Re: Um...no comment?
 >   By: Frank Reid to Deuce on Sat Sep 17 2005 22:21:00
 > 
 >  > We need caps on these damages, and the entire cost of business will go do
 >  > It shouldn't cost $5 for a Band-Aid in the emergency room!
 > 
 > There was once a pharmaceutical company whose name I won't mention, which
 > was on the brink of receivership.  They had a great drug for treating Type
 > II Diabetes (again, I won't mention the name of the drug), but
 > unfortunately, it caused liver failure (requiring a transplant to avoid
 > death) in entirely too many cases in clinical trials.  That company
 > ignored the evidence of liver toxicity that arose out of the clinical
 > trials.  They marketed the drug, because they knew that in two years they
 > would make many billions of dollars.  Enough money to put the company back
 > on sound financial footing, and leave enough over to pay off the lawsuits
 > of the tens of thousands of people who suffered elevated liver enzymes and
 > subsequent liver malfunction, frequently leading to death.
 > 
 > I am not making this up, I am talking about a REAL drug company and a REAL
 > drug that was marketed for two years, then pulled from the market.  I am
 > talking about REAL lawsuits going on even to this very day.
 > 
 > Now, how much do you limit the punitive damages to in that case?  Don't
 > forget, these people EXPECTED to be paying offf a $10M here and a $43M
 > there, and the occasional $330M class-action settlement to boot.  They
 > factored the deaths and the subsequent payments into their BUSINESS PLAN!
 > 
 > I'll agree that lawsuits can result in ludicrous judgements for trivial
 > matters.  But to legislate a cap is to give free license to those
 > companies that feel the cap is within their budget.
 > 
 > 

You just changed my view on this issue.. 


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