Pending Bill Would Compensate Victims : Trust Fund Sought for Vaccine Reactions

Millions of children are vaccinated annually against childhood diseases such as whooping cough and polio, mostly without problems, but several dozen suffer severe reactions, including mental retardation, disability, or even death.

Because these victims receive no compensation, they have often looked to the courts for relief--which in turn have held vaccine manufacturers responsible. And the manufacturers, faced with increasing liability costs, have either raised their prices or threatened to cease making vaccines altogether.

Legislation pending on Capitol Hill, designed to ensure the uninterrupted supply of critical vaccines, would create a trust fund for these families financed by an excise tax levied against each vaccine. The measure has strong bipartisan support and has been endorsed by a fragile coalition of parents’ groups, vaccine manufacturers, and the medical community.

Measure May Die

It has only one real enemy: the clock.

Because of its tax provision, the bill must be approved by the House Ways and Means Committee, which has been under a crushing workload, its time consumed by the massive tax revision bill and other tax measures. If the committee fails to act in the waning days of the 99th Congress, the bill will die--and its sponsors say they aren’t certain if it can be resurrected in the 100th.

“Within days this measure will be almost law--or almost history,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and author of the bill. “It has passed the review of doctors and parents and manufacturers and lawyers, but it has not yet passed the Congress.”

A Ways and Means source, who did not wish to be identified, said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), “is interested in the bill, but we’ve been so busy with the other tax bill that we haven’t had time to schedule it.”

‘Has a Slim Chance’

She added: “It has a slim chance--but I wouldn’t say it has no chance.”

The measure would establish a compensation system financed by an excise tax on each dose of vaccine sold. The tax would reflect the relative reaction rate of each type of vaccine. Whooping cough vaccine, for example, considered the most dangerous, would be taxed at $1.56 per dose, or $7.80 for the five-shot series. The Salk polio vaccine, considered the safest, would be taxed at a penny per dose.

Parents who could demonstrate a vaccine injury would be compensated up to $250,000 for pain and suffering, but would then be prohibited from pursuing further claims in court. Presumably, since automatic compensation would be faster and less risky than a potentially lengthy court case, families would opt for this route and the manufacturers would be protected against huge jury awards and increasing liability costs.

The bill is supported by Merck & Co., the country’s largest vaccine manufacturer, which has lobbied heavily for the legislation; the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dissatisfied Parents Together, a group of parents of vaccine-injured children.

Opposed by One Firm

The measure is opposed by only one company, Connaught Laboratories, a small Canadian firm with a major share of the U.S. market for DPT, a combination vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, which causes whooping cough. Connaught has argued that its DPT vaccine is safer than that of Lederle Laboratories, the other major DPT manufacturer, and that it should not have to share the burden. Health subcommittee officials said they have found no evidence that Connaught’s products are any safer than those of other manufacturers. Lederle does not support the bill, but has not actively worked against it.

“Not everyone supporting the bill is totally happy with the package--but all of them would like to see a bill now,” said one congressional source who did not wish to be identified. “This bill is nobody’s first choice--and it’s almost everyone’s second choice. If it dies this year, next year people will probably start with their first choice again. . . . I’m afraid the coalition would dissolve in fighting over what the next bill would look like.”