BLOOD FACTOR LITIGATION
FOR AMERICAN HEMOPHILIA VICTIMS WITH HCV

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, is spearheading an important new class action lawsuit filed on behalf of persons with hemophilia in the United States and other countries who received contaminated blood products manufactured by American companies. The defendants in the lawsuit include Armour Pharmaceutical Company, Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter Healthcare Corporation and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division, and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation.

Litigation Flyer

Click here to print out a flyer summarizing the claims in the litigation for Americans with hemophilia (pdf format).

Proposed Class

The proposed class includes American victims of hemophilia, or their survivors and estates, who from 1978 to 1990 were infected with HCV, but not also co-infected with HIV. The reason for the limitation against co-infection with HIV is that in earlier litigation (by other law firms) there was a class action settlement and release of claims (and/or now-expired opt-out rights) among the American blood factor companies and HIV-positive persons with hemophilia. (We are also pursuing claims for hemophilia victims abroad who contracted HIV and/or HCV from exported American factor concentrate products. For information on these claims, click here.)

Factual Allegations by U.S. Hemophilia Victims

Plaintiffs charge that even before the dissemination of HIV, the American blood factor companies knew of serious and deadly non-A non-B hepatitis infections caused by agents transmissible by blood and Factor VIII and IX, failed to warn people with hemophilia or the medical community of these adverse effects and failed to act quickly to render the agents non-infective. Plaintiffs further allege that simple detergent treatment was and would have been an effective method of deactivating viruses in the blood factor concentrate. Such detergents were well-known, commercially available products as of the 1970s, and studies in which detergent treatment was used to disrupt viruses were published in the 1970s in peer-reviewed journals.

Plaintiffs further allege that in 1980, Dr. Edward Shanbrom, a former Baxter scientist, received a patent for a detergent treatment process for viral inactivation of factor concentrate. Dr. Shanbrom described the implementation of this process as "as easy as washing your hands." After receiving the patent, Dr. Shanbrom allegedly approached all four American blood factor companies about implementing the solvent detergent method, but all four wrongfully refused to implement the method. Plaintiffs allege that it was years before defendants finally adopted the process to cleanse their blood products of hepatitis viruses.

In summary, plaintiffs charge that defendants sold blood factor that they knew or should have known to be infected with the agents that cause HCV. What occurred is a global tragedy whose full impact in terms of the number of lives lost and pain and grief caused to countless families has yet to be fully measured. Through the lawsuit, plaintiffs seek to require that the American companies that made these contaminated products acknowledge their responsibility and provide compensation to injured victims or their families.

Printable Flyer

We have created a flyer with information on the lawsuit specific to Americans with hemophilia. Click here to access this flyer. The document is in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format (if you don't have it already, you can click here to get the free Adobe Acrobat reader).

BLOOD FACTOR LITIGATION FOR AMERICAN HEMOPHILIA VICTIMS WITH HCV

BLOOD FACTOR LITIGATION
FOR AMERICAN HEMOPHILIA VICTIMS WITH HCV