Word: dalkon
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...almost any company smaller than General Motors is fair game, A.H. Robins seemed to be an unlikely target. The Richmond pharmaceutical firm has been bogged down in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings since 1985, and faces billions of dollars in claims from women who say they were injured by Robins' Dalkon Shield, a small plastic intrauterine birth-control device. Yet in the past few weeks suitors lined up as if Robins had discovered a cure for cancer. Two U.S. drug companies (Manhattan-based American Home Products and the Rorer Group of suburban Philadelphia) and one foreign pharmaceutical and cosmetics house (Sanofi...
...largest French drug company, which manufactures everything from Nina Ricci perfumes to pills that fight hardening of the arteries, will pay $3.08 billion. The price includes $600 million for a 58% interest in Robins and $2.48 billion that will be put into a trust fund to pay damages to Dalkon Shield claimants...
...continuing success of Robins' products has been overshadowed by one costly, disastrous mistake. Introduced in 1971, the Dalkon Shield had to be withdrawn from the market in 1974 after reports that the device was causing such problems as infertility and life-threatening pelvic infections. By August 1985, when Robins started bankruptcy proceedings to protect itself from a torrent of lawsuits, it had paid $500 million in damages to 9,500 claimants, and 5,100 cases were still pending...
...Searle discontinued the Copper-7 and the Tatum-T. Defending just four Copper-7 liability suits cost the firm $1.5 million in legal fees, even though it won the cases. Sales of the Copper-7 amounted to only $11 million in 1985. A.H. Robins, the marketer of the Dalkon Shield, fared worse. After 9,450 lawsuits that cost $490 million, the pharmaceutical company still faces 6,000 legal claims and last year sought bankruptcy protections...
...rise in product-liability lawsuits, notably in the case of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine birth control device, has resulted in ballooning insurance rates for manufacturers. And Union Carbide's Bhopal disaster, which prompted more than $100 billion in lawsuits, has helped make toxic-pollution insurance virtually impossible for most chemical companies to obtain...