Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Tuesday, October 15, 1996
Steve Sakson, AP Business Writer
But as the deadline approached today, it was unclear whether any of the victims would see any money.
The four manufacturers that made the offer can back out if too many of the 6,000 to 10,000 victims reject it and file individual lawsuits. The companies won't say how many rejections are too many.
The companies offered the settlement in an effort to end a decade of claims that they failed to protect their customers from the AIDS virus.
By Monday, roughly 3,000 victims had responded to the offer and nearly 95 percent had accepted it, a person familiar with the tabulations said.
The acceptance rate was much lower for victims who have already filed lawsuits against the companies. Plaintiffs in just over 50 percent of the 800 pending lawsuits accepted the offer, the person said, speaking on condition on anonymity.
Hundreds of responses were expected at the last minute.
The offer was made in May by Bayer AG on behalf of its Cutter and Miles laboratories divisions; Baxter International Inc., and its Travenol and Hyland divisions; Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., and its Armour Pharmaceutical division; and Alpha Therapeutic Corp., a U.S. division of Green Cross of Japan.
Some critics have complained that the same companies contributed $240,000 per person as part of a similar settlement in Japan. The companies said the legal system is more stringent in that country, necessitating the higher payment.
The companies sell in the United States the bulk of the chemicals that hemophiliacs must inject regularly to ensure their blood will clot.
Hemophiliacs contend that the companies put them at risk in the early 1980s by failing to sterilize donated blood used to make the blood-clotting products, and that the companies intentionally recruited donors at a high risk for AIDS, including gay men and intravenous drug users.
Nearly 5,000 AIDS-infected hemophiliacs have died. Since hemophilia is common among siblings and is usually present in males, some families have been decimated.
The companies insist they had no way of knowing how AIDS was transmitted at the time and are not at fault. All donors were screened for diseases and those thought at high risk for AIDS were excluded as early as 1982, the companies say.
"We did everything we believed we could to prevent infections by anything, but nobody knew what HIV was" at the time, said Guy Esnouf, spokesman for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, a French-owned drug maker.
While refusing to admit wrongdoing, the companies proposed a $640 million settlement of all claims. Hemophiliac activists grudgingly endorsed the deal, acknowledging that many victims would want it.
"Some people are in serious financial trouble and they need money. Other people have a good lawsuit, but they're dying and they want money now, and the industry knows this," said Corey Dubin, a hemophiliac and AIDS patient from Goleta, Calif., who leads the activist group The Committee of 10,000.
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EDITORS: There are three toll-free phone numbers for information on the settlement: (800) 488-2688; (800) 568-5868; (800) 836-9376.
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