The high cost of obtaining blood-clotting agents from the UK which would have prevented the transmission of hepatitis C was the only reason why the products were not imported in 1986, the tribunal heard.
Factor 9 clotting agents were available from the Elstree plant in London and were safe, counsel for the tribunal, Mr Gerard Durcan SC, said.
A meeting between representatives of the Elstree plant and Blood Transfusion Service Board officials, including Dr Terry Walsh, who is now giving evidence, took place at Pelican House on October 29th, 1986. Factor 9 was discussed and the possibility of the BTSB obtaining it from Elstree. Dr Walsh was asked to seek the views of Prof Ian Temperley, former director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, on using it.
A memo compiled by Dr Walsh following his meeting with Prof Temperley noted that Prof Temperley was happy to take the British product on a 50/50 basis with commercial product, provided the price was right. "The price quoted by UK people of 20p is too high," the memo said. Questioned about the memo, Dr Walsh said he believed it was Prof Temperley who considered the price too high. "I certainly would not have said that," he said.
The heat-treatment applied by the Armour pharmaceutical company, the supplier selected by the BTSB, was less than that applied by Elstree and thus less effective in killing hepatitis C. Factor 9, made by the BTSB from a byproduct returned to Pelican House by Armour, went on to infect four persons with hepatitis C. Cost was also referred to in other documents. In minutes of a meeting between the BTSB and the Department of Health in February 1989 on the possibility of introducing a test for hepatitis C, it was noted by Dr Boothman of the Department that "all the emphasis seemed to relate to costings and it was difficult to avoid the impression that economics were the overriding issue". Asked by Mr Durcan about this note, Dr Walsh said: "I think that is a very unfair statement for Dr Boothman to make. The overriding issue was safety."