Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Hawaii’s Attorney General says that a court ordered the manufacturers and distributers of blood thinner Plavix, to pay $916 million to the state after finding they failed to disclose its efficacy and safety.
By AUDREY MCAVOY Associated Press
The state attorney general announced Tuesday that a Hawaii court ordered the manufacturers of Plavix, a blood thinner, to pay $916 million to the state after finding they failed to disclose its efficacy and safety.
The verdict was handed down against Bristol Myers Squibb Company, three U.S. subsidiaries of French pharmaceutical Sanofi and the French company itself.
Bristol Myers Squibb said that it disagreed with the punishment and plans to appeal.
First Circuit Court Judge James Ashford determined that Plavix could cause a “diminished reaction” in about 30% of patients. This is especially true for non-Caucasians. However, the labels were not updated by the companies, according to Attorney General Anne Lopez.
As Judge Ashford determined following a jury trial, these pharmaceutical defendants had acted in bad conscience and marketed a drug that could have potentially devastating effects on Hawaii’s patients when they knew the medicine was ineffective for a significant portion of the population,” Lopez stated in a press release.
Hawaii filed the lawsuit back in 2014. It claimed that more than one million Plavix prescriptions were issued on the islands between 1998 and 2014 when the drug first became available.
Hawaii is the fifth state after Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia to sue over unfair and misleading marketing of Plavix.
In an email statement, the companies said that the overwhelming scientific evidence shows Plavix to be safe and effective, regardless of race or genetics. The company called the penalties “unwarranted” and “out of proportion.”
Hawaii’s legal case, it said, was the only one left and was “clearly outlier”, given that the companies had successfully defended themselves in other states against Plavix litigation.
The companies stated that “Plavix is the standard of care for millions of patients suffering from cardiovascular disease worldwide. It has been endorsed by the leading treatment guidelines around the globe as the first-line therapy and continues to be the gold standard.”
Source: ABC News