Six-year court battle over hepatitis C ends with settlement

[Guest guest]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081215a2.html

Monday, Dec. 15, 2008

Six-year court battle over hepatitis C ends with settlement

Kyodo News

Hepatitis C patients and Nihon Pharmaceutical Co. reached a deal Sunday to end a

series of damages suits over tainted blood products that infected the patients

with a hepatitis virus.

Signing the agreement, Tsutomu Miura, Nihon Pharmaceutical president, told the

patients, " I sincerely apologize to you that we could not prevent the outbreak

and spread of damage. As a drug maker we are deeply reflecting on this in order

to support patients and protect people's lives. "

Three other defendants in the collective suits filed in 2002 — the state,

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. and its subsidiary Benesis Corp. — have already

reached out-of-court settlements with the hepatitis patients.

Under the agreement, Nihon Pharmaceutical recognizes its responsibility for

failing to prevent the outbreak and spread of hepatitis C, and apologizes to the

plaintiffs.

The company is also required to make utmost efforts to prevent any recurrence of

medicine-induced health calamities and to take measures including the

development of a new anti-hepatitis C drug.

Many of the sufferers contracted the disease from around 1970 to the early 1990s

through tainted blood products during operations or when giving birth.

After more than 1,000 sufferers filed suits with courts across Japan in 2002,

the government and the plaintiffs reached a compromise agreement to settle the

court battles earlier this year.

Following the agreement, the Diet enacted a law in January to offer blanket

relief to people who contracted hepatitis C, paying 12 million to 40 million yen

per patient depending on the level of suffering. The funds paid under the law

are financed by the state and the three firms.