Hepatitis C patients and Nihon Pharmaceutical Co. reached a deal Sunday to end a series of damages suits over tainted blood products that infected the patients with a hepatitis virus.
Signing the agreement, Tsutomu Miura, Nihon Pharmaceutical president, told the patients, "I sincerely apologize to you that we could not prevent the outbreak and spread of damage. As a drug maker we are deeply reflecting on this in order to support patients and protect people's lives."
Three other defendants in the collective suits filed in 2002 — the state, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. and its subsidiary Benesis Corp. — have already reached out-of-court settlements with the hepatitis patients.
Under the agreement, Nihon Pharmaceutical recognizes its responsibility for failing to prevent the outbreak and spread of hepatitis C, and apologizes to the plaintiffs.
The company is also required to make utmost efforts to prevent any recurrence of medicine-induced health calamities and to take measures including the development of a new anti-hepatitis C drug.
Many of the sufferers contracted the disease from around 1970 to the early 1990s through tainted blood products during operations or when giving birth.
After more than 1,000 sufferers filed suits with courts across Japan in 2002, the government and the plaintiffs reached a compromise agreement to settle the court battles earlier this year.
Following the agreement, the Diet enacted a law in January to offer blanket relief to people who contracted hepatitis C, paying 12 million to 40 million yen per patient depending on the level of suffering. The funds paid under the law are financed by the state and the three firms.
