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Published Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011 | 3:03 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011 | 3:22 p.m.
Sun Coverage
A lawyer for a husband and wife suing two drug companies over a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas told a jury Thursday that company officials purposely sold large containers of an anesthetic to clinics despite knowing it might lead nurses to re-use and contaminate the vials.
Baxter Healthcare Corp. and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. executives knew for years that single-dose vials of propofol were safer to use, but sold vials five times larger because they were cheaper to produce and led to more sales, attorney Robert Eglet said during opening statements.
Lawyers for the drug companies argue that other causes besides the size of the vials can be linked to the spread of the liver disease.
The trial that started Thursday - involving two married couples and another patient of the endoscopy clinics linked to the outbreak - is one of hundreds expected against the companies. A jury last year awarded the headmaster of a private school who contracted hepatitis C in 2006 $500 million in punitive damages. Baxter and Teva are appealing the decision.
In his opening argument, Eglet played snippets of video depositions from company executives who acknowledged hearing that doctors and nurses might be re-using the larger vials on more than one patient, despite labels marking them for single-patient use.
By dipping back into the vials, nurses and doctors opened the drugs to contamination from blood of other patients, he said.
"They knew that was going on, and they knew it for a long time," Eglet said.
It was not clear whether lawyers for the drug companies would be able to present their opening arguments Thursday. Court was delayed because one of the jurors showed up more than an hour late.
The case was delayed for months as the Nevada Supreme Court mulled whether a nurse could testify as an expert witness about the possible cause of the outbreak. The high court ruled she could testify about proper sterilization procedures, but isn't qualified to talk about the causes.
Dr. Dipak Desai, who ran the colonoscopy clinics, is facing 28 state felony charges stemming from allegations that needles and vials were improperly used during endoscopy procedures, as well as federal conspiracy and health care fraud charges.
Desai surrendered his medical licenses last year and is currently being evaluated for mental competency after suffering several strokes.
Talk about greed,, now we are thowing a wide net .. if you sue enough people , you get rich, come on where is the common sense here people...
Why not sue the company that made the glass that the bottle was made of, the printer who printed the lables and container.. Why not sue shipper of the viles, and the person that delivered it to the doctors office as well..
JEEZUS this is disgusting me what lengths lawyers will go to for money !
This is nothing but looking for deep pockets. Bottom line is Dr. Dipak Desai is the one that caused the problem.
This country allows you to sue anyone for anything. Driving up the cost to everyone else in the process.
The Lawsuit Lotto is going to be one of the major factors that bring down this country.
Milk comes in gallon bottles but I don't believe they expect me to drink it all at once. Opening the gallon again it could become tainted. Who should we talk to about this?
to vegaslee
In your statement about milk, if you drank it all yourself there is no basis for lawsuit, but if that gallon is labeled "for single use only" and you gave it to your friends, who subsequently got sick from it, you could should your pants sued off!
Anyone who has worked as a medical professional has been trained to use a NEW sterile needle and syringe when drawing up medication from a vial.
The error was created when a contaminated needle and/or syringe was used and contaminated the vial.
The greed is with the physician or clinic owner who did not want to pay for a sterile needle everytime a vial was used.
It is like drinking directly from the gallon milk bottle rather than pouring the milk into a glass.
Guys,
The main culprit here were the scumbags at Desei's clinic, who knew better than to re-use a syringe. That said-
I have some experience with medication vendors. The company that makes Epogen stopped selling vials that were the right size we needed for a single patient. Suddenly, we had to pay more for a larger vial of Epogen marked for single-use. We had to throw the rest away, and at our cost, as Medicare only reimburses for the amount used, not the amount the provider paid for. The provider then has three choices:
1. Eat the increased cost and throw out tons of expensive, life-saving, medication.
2. Re-use vials of medication that were marked "single-use only"
3. Defraud Medicare by overstating the dose used.
The practice I worked at was above-board and always went with answer number 1. It was disgustingly wasteful, and a way for the drug company to increase profits while providing zero extra-value to the patient or provider.
Don't shed too many tears for Teva, or any other drug company. They knew this re-use would happen, and did not care. They are the ones who incentivised this.
Desei could have probably safely re-used the vials, (though it's illegal) but not the frickin syringes. Ugh. That still doesn't let Teva off the hook.