AIDS-Infected Hemophiliacs Reject Drug Firms’ Settlement

Leaders of HIV-infected hemophiliacs rejected a $640-million settlement offer from four major drug companies during talks Monday, an attorney for the hemophiliacs said.

Since the mid-1980s, hemophiliacs have said the companies put profits over safety by knowingly selling AIDS-infected clotting products made from donated blood. The companies have denied they intentionally put people at risk.

“Although the proposal could not be accepted, there was a candid and cordial exchange of views, and I anticipate there will be further discussions at an early date,” said David Shrager, who represented hundreds of hemophilia patients in federal courts.

The proposal, for $600 million plus $40 million in legal costs, would have been one of the largest product-liability payouts in U.S. history.

Shrager would not discuss any details of the meeting, saying he did not want to “negotiate in the press.”

Other attorneys and advocates for the hemophiliacs said before Monday’s session that the offer made last month was too low to settle most claims brought by the estimated 8,000 to 10,000 U.S. hemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus from clotting medicines.

They said hemophiliacs in Japan received substantially more money under an agreement in March among the Japanese government and three drug companies.

In that settlement, each of the 1,800 affected Japanese hemophiliacs will receive about $420,000, plus monthly stipends for life. The Japanese government is paying 44% of that.

“Why should the life of an American hemophiliac be worth less than the life of a Japanese hemophiliac?” said Corey Dubin, of Goleta, Calif. Dubin is president of the Committee of Ten Thousand, an activist group for HIV-infected hemophiliacs and one of the key negotiators Monday.

The U.S. settlement offer, made last month, would have provided payments of about $100,000 each to thousands of hemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus by injecting tainted blood-clotting products the companies made in the early 1980s.

Defendants Bayer, Baxter International Inc., Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. and Alpha Therapeutics Inc. offered to cover hemophiliacs, the families of deceased patients and spouses or children who acquired AIDS from an infected hemophiliac.

Guy Esnouf, director of corporate communications for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., one of four companies proposing the settlement, said a date for future talks had not been set.

“The main point is that we’re pleased that the dialogue begun today is going to continue,” he said.