Ruling Bars HIV-Infected Hemophiliacs From Suit

A federal appeals court has ruled that thousands of hemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus from blood-clotting medicine cannot join in a lawsuit against drug companies, partly because it might bankrupt the industry.

In a 2-1 ruling Friday, the court ruled that a federal judge who consolidated cases into a class action exceeded “the permissible bounds of discretion.”

Such a class action would allow one jury to “hold the fate of an industry in the palm of its hand,” and could “hurl the industry into bankruptcy,” Judge Richard A. Posner wrote for the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

David Shrager, the lead attorney for the hemophiliacs, vowed Saturday to seek a rehearing this week before the full seven-member appeals court.

“I find this extraordinary,” Shrager said. “These are affluent companies, and it has never been the purpose of this litigation to bankrupt these companies. It’s a very curious argument and is inconsistent with the pattern of American law.”

Several hemophiliacs were outraged.

“It was profit over safety that led us to this disaster,” said plaintiff Corey Dubin of Goleta, Calif. The ruling is “shocking, given the 8,000 to 10,000 (hemophiliacs who are infected) and the emotional, physical and mental devastation of thousands of people who thought they were using these products from companies where safety was considered a priority.”

The lawsuit contends that four drug companies knowingly distributed clotting products contaminated with AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.

Hemophiliacs contend that the manufacturers resisted heat-treating donated blood for years despite growing evidence that the process kills HIV.

The defendants say they acted properly and started screening blood for HIV as soon as a test was available in 1985.