Five drug companies agree to pay £5.3m to haemophiliacs for HIV

A settlement has been reached in a 10-year legal action by a group of haemophiliacs against five pharmaceutical companies whose products were responsible for infecting them with HIV. Compensation averaging £60,000 has been paid to each of 59 haemophiliacs, it has been confirmed.

In a separate development, it emerged yesterday that the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, has proposed a new formula for advancing the State's attempts to settle its liability towards infected haemophiliacs.

Indirect negotiations between his Department and the Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS) on the establishment of a new compensation tribunal, which was promised by the Government three years ago, broke down last month.

Yesterday, however, the IHS received an invitation for "interactive" talks between legal teams as soon as possible.

Among the issues to be discussed is whether compensation received from the pharmaceutical companies will be deducted from future payments from the State.

The Department has indicated that haemophiliacs involved in the commercial settlement would not be excluded from the compensation tribunal. However, legal opinion differs on whether their claims will be affected.

The tribunal is being established following the Government's admission that its "full and final" settlement with more than 100 HIV-infected haemophiliacs in 1991 did not provide adequate compensation.

Among the five drug companies in the commercial settlement were Baxter Healthcare Corp, Armour Pharmaceutical Company Inc and Miles Laboratories Inc, a part of the Bayer Group.

Under the terms of the settlement, no details may be divulged by either side. It is understood, however, that Baxter and Armour bore the brunt of compensation costs as they provided most of the blood products used by Irish haemophiliacs in the 1980s, when the majority of infections occurred.

The £5.3 million settlement, which has been made without admission of liability on the part of the companies, comprises £4 million in general and special damages and £1.3 million in legal costs.

Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co, the Dublin solicitors who handled the claim, are understood to have told the haemophiliacs they agreed to accept a reduction in their fees under the settlement.

The £4 million figure for damages represents a 33 per cent increase on a previous offer last year, and is more than double an original offer of £1.8 million in November 1998.

In the course of the action, up to 500 blood samples from haemophiliacs were sent under High Court order by UCD's Virus Reference Laboratory to Collindale in England for retrospective testing. The results are now being sought by the Lindsay tribunal.