Legal Question: Grandpa Dies Because Cheap Canadian Drugs Diluted: Who To Sue?

Great Debates
21

By “foreign customer,” are you referring to the Canadian pharmacy or the American purchaser?

If you mean the pharmacy, your proposed agreement would have no effect on the manufacturer’s liability. You can’t pre-emptively assign your liability to another party when you’re talking about rights that a third party has against you. That would be like causing a traffic accident, then saying to the victims that they can’t sue me because I made my insurance company agree to assume all my liability for any accidents I might cause. In reality, while the insurance company might be required to indemnify me (up to my policy limits, of course), the injured third parties are completely entitled to come after me personally to make good on their injuries.

If you’re talking about making the American customer enter into a waiver of liability agreement, that may or may not be effective, depending upon the language of the agreement and the public policy interests involved, e.g., whether the courts think it’s unconscionable for a drug company to make someone waive their rights in order to purchase life-saving medication.

22

Prescription drug costs aren’t universally covered by health care. Coverage varies by province, and in most provinces one needs to ring up a pretty substantial bill before coverage kicks in. Except, I believe, that all medication administered in a hospital is covered. Drug prices, however, are a federal matter, and are the result of outright price controls. The relevent department of the Ministry of Health dictates limits on how much pharma companies can charge for their products.

23

Prescription drugs are generally not paid for by the public health insurance system. Most people have a private drug plan; some people get government help, if they’re poor or old or something. If you don’t have a drug plan you pay the full price, which even here can be a pretty steep sum. My sister, who claims to be an actress (she’s a waitress) went to the doctor last month with strep throat. The antibiotics she was prescribed cost $90 for a week’s supply. I mean, Christ, just ask for penicillin next time.

Why would you think it’s any more likely than an American pharmacy making the same mistake?

Jeez, Ralph, have you ever BEEN to Canada? We have courts and laws and police and a real honest-to-God civilization. We do have the same sorts of laws about not ripping people off or selling them phony drugs. There is no reason whatsoever to think you’re in any more danger buying Grandma’s pills in Fredericton than you are in Fresno.

24

In the interests of fighting ignorance, I dug a little. The relevant governmental agency is the Patent Medicine Price Review Board. They regulate the price of all patented drugs. More information can be found here. Of note is the following bit:

25

Then why would Canadians have cheaper drugs? I thought that was a consequence of mass negotiations. Thanks for clarifying the situation for me.

26

Missed this. Got it. Thanks.

27

I’m coming into this discussion kind of late, but I have a good rebuttal for this remark. I happen to work in Distribution. We buy wholesale products from manufacturers, and resell them to the Public and other businesses. Yes, I work for a Middle Man, or more affectionately, a Broker.

All, and I really do mean “all”, of the manufacturers whose products that we resell disown all responsibility after the product is sold twice. In other words, the first sale is to us, and the second sale is to our customer. If our customer resells it a third time, no responsibility. This isn’t just declaring that you have no responsibility. How can you have any responsibility once a product has gone through so many different hands? Who knows what has happened to it in the meantime? It would be impossible to track, from the manufacturer’s perspective, thus, no guarantee.

But, take a Real World example. You by a new car from a dealership. A short time later you resell it to someone else. Does the Warranty transfer? Most of the time, it does not. What if someone dies inside that vehicle?

28

You’re confusing warranty and product liability law. One (warranties) are a matter of contract law. The other (product liability) is a matter of tort law. Warranties can be disclaimed or limited. Tort liability can sometimes be disclaimed as part of a contract, but that disclaimer does not extend to third parties.

29

Not really. Perhaps my example wasn’t pertinent enough. If a product that we resell to a customer, gets resold again to another customer, and that product happens to blow up and kill someone, it would be hard pressed to hold the manufacturer liable. The biggest exception would be if it was determined that there was a design flaw, but then, this product would be exploding all over the place, and a trend would be established. This type of stuff I deal with on a daily basis. But after the product moves through so many hands, how can you hold the manufacturer liable since they can’t even control who owns it at any given time, or even where it has been?

30

I’m a bit confused. Suppose that there’s a design flaw in the new Ford Exemplar, such that its brakes have a tendency to fail. Suppose further that brake failure in an Exemplar that’s been resold a half dozen times is the cause of an accident resulting in several deaths. Are you trying to say that because the car’s been resold, Ford is off the hook, liability-wise? Because I don’t think there’s a tort lawyer alive who’d pass up that case. IANAL, but manufacturers are responsible for their products, I do believe, regardless of how often they’re sold. Naturally, however, alterations, lack of maintenance, etc., may mitigate that liability somewhere down the road. In the case of drug companies, however, it’s hard to see how anything short of tampering with the contents would have that effect.

31

Not at all. You must have missed the part that I mentioned that the manufacturer is liable for design defects.

Here is a common situation that I deal with on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Just so that you know that I am not making this up, some of the manufacturers whose products my company is a franchised distributor for are Square D, Tyco, Panduit, and Fluke, among several others. You probably run into products that these companies manufacture, on a daily basis, and not even know it.

First, let me say that being a franchised distributor means that you first have to pass several serious quality hurdles, and be subject to random inspections, before you are allowed to sell their products. But that is just a given in the market that I work in. With that out of the way, let’s continue.

To keep it simple, let’s use a common situation that I deal with. Manufacturer (A) sells 1000 widgets to my company (B). We are a distributor, so we sell 100 widgets each to 10 different companies ©. Some of these companies are OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) who incorporate the product into another product which they manufacture and sell in a different market. However, some of the Cs simply repackage and resell the products to other customers (D).

So, let’s say that customer D.3 gets 10 widgets from C.9. 5 of those 10 widgets blow up and kill people…

I must interject that I have never actually overseen a situation where a product exploded and killed someone, mostly because the products that we resell are small electronic components that are mostly harmless. This is simply hyperbole for this thread. I have, however, seen this type of situation lead to corrections that cost millions of dollar for one company, and I have seen this situation bankrupt companies. Carry on…

…The first thing is too follow the Paper Trail. Well, in this situation, which isn’t unusual, the Paper Trail leads back to company C.9. The product was fine when it left A. It was fine when it left B. The other 9 Cs had no problem from their customers, so by process of elimination, something occurred at C.9 that caused the product to blow up and kill people.

This happens on a regular basis with scores of companies. How can you hold the manufacturer liable for this?

Again, the exception is a design defect. Of course, the manufacturer is liable for a design defect.

32

Okay, that all sounds perfectly reasonable. But how is that applicable to prescription medications? We’re not talking about buying lots of capacitors and resistors and sticking them into radios here. We’re talking about distribution of end products.

33

Ah, yes. I think that we have digressed a bit. Without intimate knowledge of the Pharmaceutical Market, I feel that it is safe to say that it functions the same way as most other Distribution Markets. Manufacture, buy, sell, resell. Since most, if not all, of the household products that you buy from, say, Walmart, have passed through at least two companies’ hands before it reaches your countertop, I would guess that the same is for Pharmaceuticals. Based solely on experience, someone would have to produce evidence to convince me otherwise, especially since the Domestic Pharmaceutical Market is worth billions of dollars.

Sure, there are safeguards that are put in place by the FDA and other Government Entities, but how can they ensure the safetly of the bottle of Paxil that you currently hold in your hand? That’s a rhetorical question, because they cannot.

It would not be hard for some small company to dilute a medication and resell it in order to make a higher profit margin. Hell, they can sell it at a cheaper price than their competitors, win a juicy contract, and make millions, if not billions, before the tampering is even noticed. And then, think of how long the legal battles roll on before any action is taken.

It is not unrealistic to think that Lots of Pharmaceuticals are bought and sold, probably overseas where restrictions are limited, several times before they reach your medicine cabinet.

If you don’t think that this is possible, I must add that there were a handful of cases, in the past couple years, of domestic Pharmacists who diluted medications in order to make a profit. One of the Pharmacists did this to pay off gambling debts. This same Pharmacist was diluting cancer treating medications.

Thus, if it comes from a foreign country, it must be taken with a grain of salt.

34

Oh my god. It’s true. The Holy Grail of legal liability–it exists! Please, I implore you, send me the name of your company and the identity of any person you suspect to have been harmed by your company’s products. Confidentiality is guaranteed, apart from the bit where I attempt to stop the drooling while you’re on the witness stand.

35

Oh, don’t worry. I sensed the sudden thickness of sarcasm. I will not divulge the company that I work for, simply because of the far reaching capabilities of this Messageboard. You could probably, with a little investigation, narrow down my employer to a half dozen companies based solely on the information that I have given. A trace of my IP address would confirm your suspicion to a single company.

Minty, I don’t question your intelligence or wit. I just question if you are involved with any sort of Distribution Market. No, you don’t have to qualify in order to answer, but I have given a Real World example that you seemed to have ignored.

Now, your point, please?

36

And I just question if your company has the slightest idea about how liability works. Oh please oh please oh please, get in front of a jury and tell them that you don’t have any responsibility for your products because they were sould once or twice after they left your custody

37

No different than if an American heart drug was understrength. If the drug was suppposed to be a certain strength, and was not, then liabiilty will follow, regardless of whether the drug was purchased in Canada or the USA.

38

Chicago, let’s make a deal. I won’t advise people as to plumbing in Chicago, and you won’t advise people as to Canadian medical malpractice litigation. Fair enough?

39

Minty, my company would have no liability whatsoever, simply because we did not manufacture the products that we sell, and we meet all of the quality standards that are necessary. Just so you know, no instance that I personally oversee would ever make it in front of a jury. So, your example is empty.

Why are you so bent on a jury, anyway? What I deal with is the liable of cost incurred on a business for a faulty product. If push comes to shove, yes, I will get up in front of a jury and proclaim my company’s innocence, as long as I feel that my company is innocent. Now, tell me why a manufacturer, whose product has been sold two or three times, and possibly traversed overseas, should be liable?

If any liability came back up the line to us, that was not our fault, we would pass the bill on to the manufacturer, and say, “Pay this.” Then, they would be expected to pay it. Oh, we know full well how liability works.

Now, I question if you know how liability works. Make sure that your answer is in reference to the subject of this current thread.

Again, for the fast-forward readers, a manufacturer is liable for a design defect.

No deal, Muffin. My moniker has nothing to do with my professional life.

40

Then please set out your qualifications as a Canadian litigator.