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 - 5 Oct 1995
Two years later, six hemophiliacs in Vancouver, British Columbia, five of them children, contracted the AIDS virus from contaminated dosages of the drug, Factorate, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today.
Several hemophiliacs in other parts of Canada, the United States and elsewhere also contracted the virus, the newspaper said.
Armour prevented virologist Alfred Prince from making his findings about Factorate public by invoking a confidentiality clause in his contract, according to an internal corporate document obtained by the Inquirer.
Telephone messages seeking comment from Collegeville-based Armour were not returned.
The report and other Armour documents held under seal in federal and Philadelphia courts were to be made public today by attorneys for a Canadian board of inquiry.
Armour, a subsidiary of what is now Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., said in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it was a defendant in a total of 321 pending lawsuits brought by HIV-infected hemophiliacs or their survivors.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by hemophiliacs to have their cases against Armour and other blood product manufacturers combined into a class action.
Armour withdrew Factorate from the Canadian market in November 1987 and from the United States a month later. It denied that the product was "unreasonably dangerous and defective."
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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