Haemophilia Society seeks drug firms investigation

The Irish Haemophilia Society will today tell Minister for Health Mr Martin they want international drugs companies to be investigated…

The Irish Haemophilia Society will today tell Minister for Health Mr Martin they want international drugs companies to be investigated by the Lindsay Tribunal.

Representatives of the society will ask the Minister to broaden the remit of the tribunal investigating the contamination of blood products in the 1980s that led to over 250 people contracting haemophilia in the State.

The meeting follows a letter sent by the society two weeks ago, in which they referred to Judge Alison Lindsay's ruling last July, in which she stated she did not have the authority to examine the actions of drugs firms that supplied infected blood products.

The tribunal has been told imported concentrates were responsible for the vast majority of more than 250 haemophiliacs being infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C.