|
� 1999, The Dallas Morning News
American Home Products Corp. has agreed to settle lawsuits by at least 36,000 women who
say they were injured by the Norplant birth control device, both sides confirmed
Wednesday.
The sweeping settlement, which could easily top $50 million, would end five years of
litigation involving the controversial product. Plaintiffs' lawyers say the company played
down such side effects as irregular menstrual bleeding, nausea, headaches and depression.
American Home Products and its subsidiary, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, have consistently
denied wrongdoing and said that the side effects were described in the product's labeling.
Norplant, which consists of six silicone rods, was injected into women's arms to prevent
pregnancy for about five years.
The settlement would give each woman $1,500 if she filed suit before March 1. Lawyers
representing a majority of the women have already endorsed the offer, said two people who
spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Wyeth-Ayerst officials said the settlement "was purely a business decision." The
company has won three jury verdicts, 20 pretrial judgments and the dismissal of 14,000
claims by lawyers.
"Our legal success has come at a steep price because lawsuits are time-consuming,
expensive and have a chilling effect on research," said Joseph M. Mahady, president
of Wyeth-Ayerst, North America, in a written statement to The Dallas Morning News.
"Now that the courts have found these cases to be without merit, we can turn our
attention back to providing contraceptive options for American women."
With the Norplant settlement complete, American Home Products can also focus on thousands
of lawsuits by former users of the diet-drug combination fen-phen.
Wall Street analysts have said the company may have to pay $3 billion to $5 billion to
settle those claims. The suits allege that the drug maker withheld evidence that its drug,
fenfluramine, caused heart valve damage and a potentially fatal lung disorder.
Plaintiffs - including about 10,000 Texas residents - have 120 days to accept the terms,
once they are notified. If they refuse, their cases will proceed in court, where American
Home Products has already sought to dismiss them.
Other claims
The settlement does not address claims from several hundred women who developed serious
injuries while the device was in their arms. Their claims - for a significantly higher
amount of money - will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Turner W. Branch, co-chairman of the plaintiffs' steering committee, confirmed the basic
details of the settlement Wednesday but declined to comment further. As many as 50,000
women could be eligible to participate, he said.
If all former users agreed to the settlement, American Home Products would pay $50 million
to $75 million. Attorneys' fees are not broken out of the deal and would be deducted from
each woman's payoff. The remaining money would allow women to pay for removal of the
Norplant device.
For the past four years, American Home Products and its subsidiary have said they would
never pay a penny to any of the former Norplant users.
Wall Street analysts said the settlement's price tag pales in comparison with other large
litigation bonanzas, including silicone breast implants and the Dalkon Shield birth
control device.
"I'm sure there were a lot of plaintiffs' lawyers out there hoping it would be in the
billions of dollars," said Calvert Crary, a litigation analyst based in Westport,
Conn. "But this didn't turn out to be that kind of situation. This was not a case
where people were going to get rich."
The settlement requires both sides to budge from their long-standing positions, said one
plaintiffs' lawyer handling hundreds of cases.
"This meets the classic definition of a good settlement," said the lawyer, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Neither party is particularly enthralled by
either the amount or the result."
'Best deal'
Blair Hahn, a lawyer at a South Carolina firm that represents several thousand women in
the litigation, said the firm is recommending that most of its clients take the settlement
offer.
"It's the best deal most of them could get," Mr. Hahn said. "But we have a
few cases in which the women have specific damages that are directly linked to Norplant.
We are recommending that they not accept the offer." Those
women have suffered either a stroke or blindness resulting from pressure that built up
around the optic nerve - injuries the lawyers claim can be directly associated with
Norplant. American Home Products denies that claim.
The drug maker, based in Madison, N.J., can easily absorb the cost of the settlement,
analysts say. The company posted a net profit last year of $2.5 billion on revenue of
$13.5 billion. The market value of all its stock tops $62 billion. "In the
context of a $60 billion company, this is not a significant settlement," Mr. Crary
said. "It's probably going to be covered entirely by insurance companies."
Fen-phen suits
The drug maker's stock has plunged in recent weeks on uncertainty over thousands of other
lawsuits filed by former users of fen-phen. Earlier this month, an East Texas jury awarded
nearly $23.4 million to a woman who claimed she developed heart valve damage after taking
the product.
American Home Products has vowed to appeal the verdict. Its stock closed Wednesday at
$47.81, up 63 cents. Like fen-phen, Norplant became a phenomenon after it was
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1991. Doctors inserted the birth
control device in about 5 million women worldwide, including about 1 million in the United
States.
After problems were reported in the mid-1990s, the FDA conducted an extensive
re-examination of the product's safety and concluded that it had no basis to question
Norplant's safety when used as directed.
Wyeth-Ayerst continues to call Norplant "a valuable contraceptive option" and
said Wednesday that it will continue to make the product available.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Schell of Beaumont, who is overseeing the Norplant
litigation, was informed of the settlement offer earlier this month and passed it to all
lawyers in the cases.
Previously, Judge Schell denied a request for class-action status and dismissed five cases
before trial. In addition, dozens of state court lawsuits have either been dismissed by
judges or withdrawn by the plaintiffs. Only four cases have gone to trial, three of them
in Texas.
"These cases were extremely difficult to win," said Ron Motley of Charleston,
S.C., who has won billions of dollars in jury verdicts and settlements in the asbestos and
tobacco litigations. "This firm took three Norplant cases to trial, and we won only
one for $35,000 in Texas. That's not a good record."
Staff writer Mark Curriden contributed to this report.
***************************************************
The material contained in this file is made
available courtesy contributors and editors of
Pro-Life E-News.
Copying of this material is free for non-commercial
educational and research use. Unless explicitly stated,
copyright of this material is owned by the author
and/or sponsoring organization, and/or newswire services.
|
|
