PRESS RELEASE

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, Announces Filing of Claims In United States District Court On Behalf Of Hemophiliacs Abroad Infected With HIV And/Or HCV Due To Virus Contaminated Blood Products

The Blood Products the Hemophiliacs Used Were Manufactured by American Companies Based in California and Other States

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June 2, 2003, San Francisco, CA -- Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, announced today the filing of lawsuit, entitled Domenico Gullone, et al. v. Bayer Corporation, et al., on behalf of hemophiliacs, or their survivors and estates, living outside the United States who became infected with HIV and/or Hepatitis C ("HCV") from contaminated blood products manufactured by American companies. The blood products were known as factor concentrate, Factor VIII ("antihemophilic factor" or "AHF") and Factor IX, and were manufactured and sold in the U.S., and exported worldwide.

"Tens of thousands of hemophiliacs globally were infected with HIV or HCV after receiving blood products from blood plasma that was originally manufactured in the United States," stated Lieff Cabraser partner Robert J. Nelson. The complaint alleges that these companies intentionally sold blood factor that they knew or should have known to be infected with the agents that cause AIDS and HCV. "This is a worldwide tragedy," Nelson said. "Thousands of hemophiliacs have unnecessarily died from AIDS, and many thousands more are infected with HIV or Hepatitis C." The lawsuit seeks to require that the American companies that made these contaminated products acknowledge their responsibility to hemophiliacs worldwide and their families.

Each of the representative plaintiffs in the lawsuit have been infected with HIV and/or HCV and reside in the United Kingdom, Italy or Germany. The complaint includes a proposed class action on behalf of persons worldwide with HIV and/or HCV from contaminated American blood products. The American companies, or their subsidiaries, named as defendants in the lawsuit were engaged in the manufacture, production and sale of Factor VIII and IX and/or their plasma components. The defendants include: Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter Healthcare Corporation and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division, Armour Pharmaceutical Company and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation.

The complaint alleges that the defendants recruited and paid donors and/or purchased plasma knowingly obtained from the highest-risk populations, including prisoners, intravenous drug users, and blood centers targeting promiscuous urban gays, for the production of Factor VIII and IX. Plaintiffs allege that these companies failed to exclude donors, as mandated by U.S. law, with a history of viral hepatitis. Testing for hepatitis would have substantially reduced the likelihood of plasma containing HIV and/or HCV entering plasma pools.

The complaint further alleges that the defendants misrepresented to public officials and physicians that Factor VIII and IX were safe to use and that they had undertaken effective efforts to reduce the risk to hemophiliacs of developing AIDS and HCV. Plaintiffs charge that when the first evidence that hemophiliacs had died from AIDS surfaced, the defendants acted in concert to avoid recalling Factor VIII and IX, to avoid warning patients of the risks of HIV and HCV infection posed by their products, and to continue to market the products as safe.

About Lieff Cabraser

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a fifty-plus attorney law firm with offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. Since 1972, Lieff Cabraser has successfully represented residents of the United States and persons living abroad in a wide range of cases, including personal injury lawsuits.

The firm has successfully litigated against the nation's cigarette manufacturers, and against some of the country's largest pharmaceutical, insurance, securities and software companies. Since 1992, Lieff Cabraser has litigated thirty-five separate cases in which $100 million or more jury verdicts were rendered or settlements were reached, including ten cases each valued at $1 billion or more. Assisting Lieff Cabraser with the litigation is the Law Offices of Charles Kozak.

Source/Contact:

Heather Foster
LIEFF CABRASER HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP
275 Battery Street, 30th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel: (415) 956-1000
Fax: (415) 956-1008