AG Watch

State Farm’s settlement in Mississippi will catch most AG-related headlines today, but another settlement deserves attention as well. In 2001, Bayer voluntarily removed Baycol, a “statin” cholesterol-lowering drug, from the market after learning that the drug carried higher risks than other statins. Bayer notified FDA.

Six years later, 30 state AGs led by Vermont’s William H. Sorrell have settled with Bayer for $8 million, following a brief sortie over Bayer’s alleged failure to notify consumers. As always, the AGs exercised after-the-fact interpretations of the Bayer’s legal obligations—there were no laws or guidelines for Bayer in these states at the time—to say nothing of the questionable desirability of state Attorneys General deciding public health policy. Bayer’s wrongdoing could easily have been handled by FDA and the DoJ.

It seems doubtful that $8 million six years later will really assist the affected consumers. If any of the money is distributed to specific individuals at all. And will $8 million have a significant deterrence effect on a company whose total net income approached $2 billion in 2005? We won’t hold our breath.

It seems most likely that the $8 million only really affects the states themselves. AGs boost the budget, get a nice news clipping, every beneficial pill in the universe gets slightly more expensive, and no one is any the wiser.