TRANSFUSION INDUCED HEPATITIS C LITIGATION ON BEHALF

OF PERSONS WITH HEMOPHILIA NOT CO-INFECTED WITH HIV

To Persons with Hemophilia and their Families:

I am the principal attorney at the Law Office of Peter D. Hoffman, PC.  I am the father of a person with Hemophilia and have done Hemophilia Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) litigation and Hemophilia HIV litigation throughout my entire career. I am also well experienced in blood products litigation on behalf of persons injured by transfusions and infected with Hepatitis B Virus, (HBV), HCV and HIV. I have a unique and personal perspective on how HIV and hepatitis have affected persons with Hemophilia and their families. I am personally and professionally committed to seeking justice for persons with Hemophilia and their families who have been impacted by this epidemic of viral contamination and infection. I was the only attorney to oppose the fairness of the settlement in the Hemophilia HIV litigation on the grounds that the settlement forced persons with Hemophilia who participated in the settlement to waive their potential hepatitis claims.

I am writing to inform you about an important, new class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Persons with Hemophilia in the United States (and other countries) who received blood products manufactured by American companies. There is also a strong likelihood that this litigation may take a similar form to the Hemophilia HIV litigation that consolidated all case before one United States District Court Judge. The defendants in the lawsuit include Armour Pharmaceutical Company, Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter Healthcare Corporation and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation.

The proposed class includes American Persons with Hemophilia, or their survivors and estates, which from 1978 to 1990 were infected with HCV, but not American Persons with Hemophilia also co-infected with HIV. The reason for the limitation against co-infection with HIV is that in earlier litigation (by other law firms) there was a class action settlement and release of claims (and/or now expired opt out rights) among the American blood factor companies and HIV-positive Persons with Hemophilia. This firm was the only firm to oppose that class action settlement on the basis of the waiver of claims concerning hepatitis infection.

None of this means that there should not be litigation that is separate from the class action for American Persons with Hemophilia and HCV. Each person affected will have a choice to determine whether they wish to be part of the class or to opt out and litigate their claim individually. The choice between litigating individually or participating in the class action is a decision made between an affected person and their lawyer.  The date limitations of infections between 1978 and 1990 should not be considered absolutes, as we are aware of infections that are post 1990.

Plaintiffs charge that even before the known spread of HIV, the American bloodfactor companies knew of serious and deadly NON A NON B hepatitis, (NANB hepatitis) infections caused by agents transmissible by blood and Factor VIII and IX, and failed to warn Persons with Hemophilia or the medical community of these adverse effects and failed to act quickly to render the agents non-infective. Plaintiffs further allege that simple detergent treatment was and would have been an effective method of deactivating viruses in factor concentrate. Such detergents were well-known, commercially available products as of the 1970s, and studies in which detergent treatment was used to disrupt viruses were published in the 1970s in peer-reviewed journals.

Plaintiffs further allege that in 1980, Dr. Edward Shanbrom, a former Baxter scientist, received a patent for a detergent treatment process for viral inactivation of factor concentrate. Dr. Shanbrom described the implementation of this process as "as easy as washing your hands." After receiving the patent, Dr. Shanbrom allegedly approached all four American blood factor companies about implementing the solvent detergent method, but all four wrongfully refused to implement the method. Plaintiffs allege that it was years before defendants finally adopted the process to cleanse their blood products of hepatitis viruses.

In summary, plaintiffs charge that defendants sold blood factor that they knew or should have known to be infected with the agents that cause HCV. What occurred is a global tragedy whose full impact in terms of the number of lives lost and pain and grief caused to countless families has yet to be fully measured. Through the lawsuit, Persons with Hemophilia and HCV seek to require that the American companies that made these contaminated products acknowledge their responsibility, and provide compensation.

We can represent Persons with Hemophilia and HCV in many states.  I am licensed to practice in New Jersey, New York and Washington, DC and I am admitted in the United States District Court in Texas. In addition, we are affiliated with counsel in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Maryland as it concerns this litigation. We are also seeking to expand our affiliations with other counsel in other states. If you would like to learn more about the litigation, please feel free to contact me at pdh2@lawofficeofpdhoffman.com or by telephone toll free at 1-866-567-3472.

 Please feel free to contact my firm at any time.

Please see the attached list of HCV Resources - Hepatitis C Links

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