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 - Thursday, October 24, 1996.
The companies have until Nov. 22 to decide whether to go along with the settlements and face lawsuits from many of the remaining victims.
The manufacturers' spokesman, Guy Esnouf of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., would not say what factors would be considered as they evaluate their options.
Of the forms returned opting into the settlement, roughly 6,500 were deemed eligible and more than 800 of those have lawsuits pending. Fewer than 550 chose to stay out of the settlement, about 380 of whom have already filed suit.
If the settlements are pursued, the companies' final agreement will depend on how the court decides to handle Medicare or Medicaid claims that would have to be paid first, Esnouf said.
The settlement 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, and its Armour Pharmaceutical division; and Alpha Therapeutic Corp., a U.S. division of Green Cross of Japan.
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.
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.
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.
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