Drug-Company Liability in Immunization Programs

AN extremely important decision, Tinnerholm v.Parke, Davis & Co.,1 has recently been passed down by the prestigious Second Circuit (Federal) Court of Appeals in New York affirming a decision of the District Court against the drug firm concerning Quadrigen, a vaccine combining diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and inactivated poliovirus antigens. The trial-court decision,2 with a damages award of $651,783, had caused a great deal of concern in drug-company and public-health circles, where it was thought that the proof offered of a causal relation between the taking of Quadrigen and severe injury and disability in a two-month-old infant was not warranted . . .