IHS: May deadline for decision on suing US firms

The Government will decide in late May if it will sue US pharmaceutical firms over contaminated blood products.

The Irish Haemophilia Society, whose members contracted Hepatitis C and HIV infections, today criticised a three-year delay in the litigation process which it said could jeopardise the cases of some of its members.

Health Minister Mary Harney told the Haemophilia Society at a meeting tonight that the Government had sought legal advice on pursuing legal action against the pharmaceutical firms.

A Health Department statement said afterwards: “In July 2003 the Government was approached by a firm of New York lawyers with a proposal to sue certain pharmaceutical companies in the US arising from the manufacture of blood products which caused Hepatitis C and HIV infection to persons with haemophilia.

“Initial advice received from a barrister appointed by the Attorney General raised serious concerns in relation to the proposal.

“Following careful consideration of this advice, the Attorney General recommended that an independent opinion be obtained in the US in respect of the proposed litigation. The Chief State Solicitors Office has engaged a legal firm to provide the required advice and the Tánaiste is requesting that this advice be available by the end of May.”

However solicitor for the Haemophilia Society, Raymond Bradley criticised the three-year delay which he warned could result in some cases becoming statute-barred with the state losing entitlements to recoup healthcare and compensation costs.

“The Government has sought lawyers to give opinion on other lawyers’ opinions,” he said.

“Compensation entitlements may be frittered away while the Government considers it options.

“Time is passing. The Government doesn’t seem to be capable of getting an opinion as to whether it is feasible to pursue this litigation. They haven’t even got off the starting blocks.”

Mr Bradley said that the Government had already missed two deadlines in the affair.

A total of 87 Irish people with haemophilia have so far died as a result of contaminated clotting agents, most of which were made by international drug firms based in the United States.

Several companies engaged in high-risk practices in the 1970s and early 1980s, such as paying prisoners for blood plasma at jails with inadequate safety checks.

In 2002, the then Health Minister Micheál Martin gave a commitment to assess the possibility of prosecuting these firms, after the Lindsay Tribunal refused to expand its terms of reference to explore the issue.