Trust Your Doctor? Trust The Government?
Wednesday, May 07, 1997
More than six thousand hemophiliacs contracted AIDS through AIDS
tainted blood that was meant to save their lives. They received
the deadly AIDS laced blood from Baxter International Inc., Armour
PharmaceuticalRhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., Alpha Therapeutic Corp. and
Bayer AG. In a settlement of more than $600 million each victim or
their surviving family members were paid out a meager $100,000 for their
life in an settlement approved by U.S. District Judge John Grady.
The companies agreed to settle so long as they did not have to admit to
doing anything wrong. The U.S. Courts ensured that it took more
than a decade for the victims to receive anything. The victims
contracted AIDS from the blood between 1978 to 1985.
More than five hundred hemophiliacs opted out of the settlement
agreement. The companies still face lawsuits from these
individuals.
In March 1996, four hundred Japanese victims were each paid out
$420,000 by Baxter -- along with Bayer Yakuhin Ltd., the Japanese
subsidiary of Bayer, and Green Cross Corp., the Chemo Therapeutic
Research Institute, and Nippon Zoki Pharmaceutical Co. The Japanese
government paid out half the settlement.
In the U.S. the companies got off with paying only $12.2 million to
the government for payments made by federal health insurance programs.
The settlements put Japanese lives at four times the value of that of
U.S. citizens. |
