Companies Move On Hemophiliacs' HIV Settlement

Bayer, Baxter International, Armour Pharmaceutical, which is a unit of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, and Alpha Therapeutic, a subsidiary of Green Cross of Japan, have decided to move ahead with an offer to pay $620 million to 6,200 hemophiliacs who say they were infected with HIV from blood clotting products.

The companies told the US District Court judge presiding in the case that they would continue with the settlement despite the uncertainty of having to deal separately with 540 victims, who last month refused the offer.

Of the 540, around 350 have already filed lawsuits; the companies told the judge they would continue to try to settle with these hemophiliacs.