The Tokyo District Court ordered the state and three drugmakers Friday to pay a combined 259 million yen in damages to 13 of 21 plaintiffs infected with the hepatitis C virus from tainted blood products.
The verdict is the third in as many rulings handed down in a series of similar lawsuits that found the government and pharmaceutical companies guilty of not regulating the use of unheated coagulants despite being aware that such products might contain the hepatitis C virus. The blood products were commonly used in the 1970s by obstetricians, gynecologists and surgeons to treat hemophilia or stop hemorrhaging during childbirth or surgery.
Presiding Judge Atsuro Nagano ruled that the state and Nihon Pharmaceuticals Co., Mitsubishi Pharma Corp. and its subsidiary, Benesis Corp., were responsible for spreading the virus and condemned the defendants, saying that "warnings and regulations were not made properly or sufficiently," resulting in the increase of hepatitis C virus infections.
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