Vaccine Liability Compromise Collapses

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

ASHINGTON, April 9 — A bipartisan compromise on vaccine liability legislation, negotiated by the Senate majority leader, collapsed this morning when vaccine makers objected, prompting the chairman of a Senate committee to cancel consideration of the bill.

The majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, and other lawmakers arrived at work today expecting the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee to adopt the compromise, which tries to shield vaccine makers from lawsuits while expanding the rights of parents of injured children to bring claims before a special court.

Instead, when the meeting began, Congressional aides watched, stunned, as lobbyists for several vaccine manufacturers huddled anxiously with the staff of Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire and the committee chairman. Moments later, Mr. Gregg announced that the meeting, called a "mark up" in Senate parlance, would be postponed for lack of a quorum.

In an interview, Senator Gregg said he saw no reason to rush the bill when the companies had concerns. "My staff told me we didn't have an agreement," he said, adding, "In this business, things move back and forth pretty often."

The legislation would update the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, a 1986 law intended to promote development of vaccines by protecting manufacturers from legal liability. The new measure, sponsored by Dr. Frist, is a high priority for the majority leader, a medical doctor who takes a particular interest in health issues.

As a result, lawmakers were especially surprised by Mr. Gregg's action. Some perceived the committee chairman as delivering a subtle reminder to Dr. Frist that he, not the majority leader, has final say over health legislation. Others were simply caught off guard.

"I don't know what happened," said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, a co-sponsor of the legislation who represented Democrats in the negotiations. "It was resolved as of 9:30 this morning."

Mr. Dodd helped write the 1986 law, which set up the "vaccine court." Parents of injured children are required to bring claims to the court before suing; compensation is awarded through a taxpayer-financed fund.

But the 1986 law covers only vaccines themselves, not vaccine ingredients or additives, which left some manufacturers vulnerable to lawsuit. Among them is Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some parents contend has caused autism in their children.

The bill would close that loophole and force thousands of thimerosal lawsuits into the vaccine court. But it would also greatly expand the rights of parents to seek compensation for vaccine-related injuries, which has drawn objections from two of the nation's major vaccine makers, Merck and Wyeth, people familiar with the talks said.

While current law permits parents to file claims up to three years after their child's injury becomes apparent, the new bill would double the statute of limitations to six years. The bipartisan compromise added a provision giving parents who missed the statute of limitations a year's grace period under which to file claims, regardless of how old the child is. That could open the door to new suits, because parents can go to court once their claims are rejected.

Spokesmen for Merck and Wyeth said today that while they supported changes that would expand parents' rights to have their cases heard, they did not want a flood of suits.

"We are concerned," said Ian Spatz, vice president for public policy at Merck, "with any changes that would add significantly to the already great burden of civil litigation against vaccine research companies such as ours."

Lawmakers in both parties said they hoped negotiations could resume after Congress's two-week recess, which begins on Monday.

"We've still got a chance to get this done," Mr. Dodd said. "We had reached a good compromise last night."