Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - 2 Oct 1995
The court, without comment, turned down the hemophiliacs' bid to reinstate a judge's order that would have let them sue as a class representing thousands of hemophiliacs.
The 1993 federal lawsuit filed in Illinois named as defendants four companies that use blood plasma to make blood-clotting medicines for hemophiliacs.
The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 9,000 hemophiliacs -- close to half of the nation's hemophiliac population -- contracted the AIDS virus more than a decade ago from contaminated clotting products.
Hemophiliacs say the companies were negligent and resisted taking steps to protect their blood supply when they learned of AIDS in the early 1980s.
The companies say they acted responsibly and began screening blood for the AIDS virus as soon as a test was available in 1985. Blood supplies also are heat-treated to kill the virus.
Several hundred other lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts seeking damages from the drug companies.
U.S. District Judge John F. Grady in Chicago certified the 1993 lawsuit as a class-action case to decide whether the companies were negligent. Separate trials still would be needed to decide whether the companies were liable to individual people.
But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Grady's class-action order last March, saying such status would allow one jury to "hold the fate of an industry in the palm of its hand" and could force the industry into bankruptcy.
In the appeal acted on Monday, the hemophiliacs' lawyers said the 7th Circuit court acted improperly in issuing a "writ of mandamus" -- a special order granted outside the normal appeal process.
But the companies' lawyers said the appeals court correctly decided a class-action lawsuit would be unfair to the companies.
The four companies are Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., based near Philadelphia; Baxter Healthcare Corp. of Deerfield, Ill.; Miles Inc. of Pittsburgh, and Alpha Therapeutic Corp. of Los Angeles.
The case is Grady vs. Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, 95-147.
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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Copyright © 1995 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.
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