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 - Monday, November 25, 1996 16:23:00 PM.
The companies have proposed paying $620 million to 6,200 hemophiliacs, an offer that was accepted last month by all but 540 of the victims.
The companies told U.S. District Judge John Grady on Monday they plan to move ahead with the settlement, despite the uncertainty of having to deal separately with those who refused the offer.
Some 350 lawsuits already have been filed by the holdout victims, but the companies told the judge they will continue to seek accords with those hemophiliacs.
Lawyers for the companies and the many of the victims are trying to work out agreements with Medicaid and private insurance companies that might have a claim against the settlement money. The judge has said he wants the full amount -- $100,000 for each person -- to go to the victims.
In addition to the settlement amount, the drug companies have set aside $40 million to pay victims' legal bills.
The final agreement is subject to the judge's approval.
The drug companies are Bayer Corp., Baxter International Inc., Armour Pharmaceutical Co. and Alpha Therapeutic Corp.
Hemophiliacs contend 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 recruited donors at a high risk for AIDS.
Nearly 5,000 AIDS-infected hemophiliacs have died.
The companies insist they had no way of knowing at the time how AIDS was transmitted and are not at fault.
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