OTHER NEWS - May 30, 1994

Upjohn Wins Halcion Libel Case: The company won $90,500 in damages over a 1991 British Broadcasting Corp. program about the sleep-inducing drug. A U.K. High Court justice said the BBC was wrong to accuse Upjohn Co. of deliberately misleading regulators about the possible harmful side effects of Halcion. But he also criticized Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Upjohn for “serious errors and omissions” in reporting a clinical trial of the drug conducted at a U.S. prison in the 1970s. Claims that Halcion could have side effects such as amnesia, paranoia and violent behavior led to worldwide restrictions on sales. Britain banned the drug in 1991. But the court found no evidence that Upjohn had attempted to deliberately cover up the drug’s possible dangers, as alleged in a BBC television program titled “The Halcion Nightmare.”