The Government has ruled out ever holding any form of inquiry into the role multinational drug companies played in the infection of Irish haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
Neither will it be pursuing legal action against the drug companies in the US or Irish courts, Minister for Health Mary Harney confirmed yesterday.
She said legal advice obtained by the State, both in the US and in the Republic, including from the Attorney General, indicated any such action would not succeed.
"I think for the State to pursue legal action where it had no possibility of winning would be dishonest in the extreme and would be exposing taxpayers to a considerable bill," she said.
The news has angered the Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS), which said various ministers for health since 1998, including Brian Cowen and Micheál Martin, promised an inquiry into the role US drug firms had in infecting Irish haemophiliacs.
Ms Harney said no such commitment was ever given by Government. In the absence of a legal action, some form of inquiry should have been set up, the IHS said. However, Ms Harney ruled one out.
"First of all we are aware of all the facts. I don't know what an inquiry would establish that we're not already aware of," she said.
"We are in the process of having many inquiries in the country at the moment looking into past events and many of them very appropriate but to pursue the route of an inquiry just for the sake of it because it might look good when it can establish no new facts that are not now known to us I don't think would be a very wise course of action."
The Lindsay tribunal, which cost €45 million, investigated the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C but did not investigate the role of multinational drug companies.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet yesterday received the advice of US law firm Jenner and Block on the possibility of the State mounting a legal action against the international drug companies.
The lawyers advised that the State was out of time to take any action as it would have known since 1991 and 1995 that blood products manufactured by the drug companies had caused the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C respectively.
They also advised that the drug companies would probably be in a position to defend their actions on the basis that the manufacture of the products was conducted in accordance with then existing industry standards.
The Department of Health said it was satisfied Jenner and Block, who were paid up to €250,000 for their advice, had no conflict of interest. But it said 17 US firms which were approached to give advice indicated they had a conflict of interest and could not do the job.
More than 260 haemophiliacs in the State contracted HIV and/or hepatitis C from contaminated blood clotting products, most of them imported, and 91 of them have since died.
The drug companies which the State would have pursued, if it took an action, would have included Armour/Cutter/Miles, Travenol/Baxter and Immuno International.
Another US law firm, Lieff Cabraser, offered to take a case on behalf of the State against the drug companies on a "no foal, no fee" basis in 2003.
But Ms Harney said legal advice had to be taken before the State "would dream of accepting that kind of offer". There were "issues of propriety" about it which many would have difficulty with, as well as legal issues, she said. No country had done more to look after the victims "of this terrible tragedy".
The State had compensated the people affected to the tune of €250 million, Ms Harney said.