|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Proposed settlement reached in diluted chemo drug class action
Nov 11, 2016
Toronto Star
A class-action lawsuit
representing more than 1,000 cancer patients in Ontario and New
Brunswick who were given diluted chemotherapy drugs has reached a
proposed settlement.
Mississauga-based
drug supplier Marchese Hospital Solutions and bulk purchaser Medbuy
Corporation, along with four hospitals in Ontario and one in New
Brunswick, will collectively pay $2,375,000 to settle a 2013 lawsuit
stemming from the sale and administration of a premixed liquid
chemotherapy medication that contained too much saline solution, according to a notice for a court hearing to approve the settlement.
Of
that sum, $1,800,000 will be equally divided among the 1,202 patients,
or their estates, who were given the watered-down drugs between 2012 and
2013. Another $100,000 will go to Ontario and New Brunswick provincial
health insurers and the remaining $475,000 towards administration and
legal fees.
As well, Marchese and MedBuy
have agreed to provide the Ontario Court with affidavits “attesting to
the steps they have taken to ensure the issues and concerns giving rise
to the Dosing Incident have been satisfactorily addressed.”
In
meeting these terms, the hospitals, Marchese and MedBuy “do not admit
any wrongdoing or liability in connection with the Class Action,” the
proposed settlement reads.
The class action was filed days after Cancer Care Ontario revealed in April 2013
that Windsor Regional Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre,
Lakeridge Health, Peterborough Regional Health Centre and Saint John
Regional Hospital had received the watered-down medication. The lawsuit
originally sought $25 million in damages.
The scandal sparked outrage from patients and their families, and prompted the province to introduce regulations on drug procurement. Those new rules include a requirement that hospitals only buy drugs from licensed providers (Marchese was operating without provincial or federal oversight);
the rules also grant the Ontario College of Pharmacists the power to
inspect any facility where a pharmacist is employed, regardless of
whether the facility is a licensed pharmacy.
However, a subsequent inquiry and report by Jake Thiessen,
founding director of University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy, found
“that there appears to be little probability that the dilution impacted
cancer prognosis at all,” explained Sabrina Lombardi, a lawyer with
McKenzie Lake Lawyers. The London, Ont., based law firm is one of two
firms that launched the class action on behalf of the affected patients.
The inquiry also found that the mistakes made in the health-care chain did not amount to negligence.
“What
this settlement represents is an acknowledgement of the added anxiety
and stress that that letter letting them know about this dilution error
would have put those cancer patients through,” Lombardi told the Star
Thursday. “They were dealing with enough in having to undergo cancer
treatment, so that’s the context that this settlement has grown from.”
Patients
who want to object to the settlement or opt out of it have until Dec. 7
to do so. Lombardi said she wasn’t aware of any patients who have opted
out yet.
The settlement will go through an approval hearing at a Windsor courthouse on Jan. 10, 2017.
0 comments :
Post a Comment
Your comments?
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.