Using possible vaccine injured children is not applicable here--the only way a parent may sue for vaccine injury is thru the "vaccine courts". There is a statutes of limitations for a complaint to be heard in this court "three years from manifestation of onset of symptoms" and there has to be clear documentation from child's med records of immune system dysfunction. There are limiitations for payment --ie a $250,000 cap on payment for death from a vaccine. there has been one payment by this court for a vaccine related autism in a child, Hannah Poling , whose father is a pediatric neurologist in atlanta, ga. In that instance, the ruling was that there was evidence the vaccine "unmasked" an underlying mitochondrial cytopathy the child had.
RIck noted the most salient issue--punative damages for wrongdoing. For instance in the Vioxx case, the pharma company knew that compared to placebo, there was a significant increase in heart disease, stroke and death from heart disease for those using Vioxx. the pharma co sat on this infomation for more than 6 months, realizing sales of the drug which totaled $2.5 billion/yr at that time.
http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/10/18.php
Should the pharma cos pay in this instance--I think that's a resounding "yes". Knowledge of evidence of harm that is kept from the public and prescribing physicians while the pharm co attempts to "figure out what the statistics mean" (the numbers were very clear in this instance--the RR btn the placebo group and the Vioxx group was 50%)should be enough reason to compensate those harmed thru the pharm cos efforts to cover up scientific information in their possession.