ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 TAG: 9610150103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
Thousands of hemophiliacs who were infected with the AIDS virus by tainted blood clotting products have accepted a settlement offer from manufacturers that would give each $100,000 in compensation.
But as Tuesday night's deadline approached for victims to file forms expressing their opinion on the deal, it was unclear whether enough of the 6,000 to 10,000 victims approved to ensure its completion.
By Monday, roughly 3,000 victims had responded to the offer and nearly 95 percent had accepted, a person familiar with the tabulations said.
The settlement offer was made by Bayer AG on behalf of its Cutter and Miles laboratories divisions; Baxter International Inc., and its Travenol and Hyland divisions; Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., and its Armour Pharmaceutical division; and Alpha Therapeutic Corp., a U.S. division of Green Cross of Japan.
Hemophiliacs contend the companies put them at risk for AIDS in the early 1980s by failing to sterilize donated blood used to make the clotting agents. Nearly 5,000 AIDS-infected hemophiliacs have died. Deaths are now occurring at a rate of two per day, activists say.
The companies insist they had no way of knowing how AIDS was transmitted at the time and so they are not at fault.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 33 linesby CNB