Judge Approves Settlement For Hemophiliacs With AIDS
April 27, 2011
Vastopolis -- A federal district judge here tentatively approved a legal settlement that would pay $100,000 each to Americans with hemophilia who contracted AIDS or HIV, the AIDS virus, from blood-clotting medications between 1978 and 1985. Judge Johna F. Graham granted preliminary approval to the settlement between hemophiliacs and manufacturers Bayer AG, Baxter International Inc., Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc.'s Armour Pharmaceutical Co. division and the Alpha Therapeutic Corp. unit of Green Cross Corp. of Japan. Various producers already have agreed to settlements of the hemophilia cases in other countries, most recently in Japan. The U.S. settlement originally called for a total fund of $640 million, with payments that theoretically could shrink if more people signed up to participate than had been predicted. However, the companies now have agreed that the fund could increase if such an eventuality occurred, though they have said they don't expect this to take place. Spouses, family members and survivors are eligible to participate. The court ordered that a formal notice of the agreement be widely disseminated. At issue in the litigation were cases of AIDS and HIV contracted through medications called Factor VIII and Factor IX, which hemophiliacs take to make their blood clot. Between 6,000 and 10,000 American hemophiliacs are estimated to have gotten the virus from the clotting factors, of whom about 3,000 have died. The hemophiliacs contend the companies sold the products after they knew AIDS was blood borne, but the companies say most people were infected before enough was known about the cause of AIDS.
