The Recorder, "Blood Feud"

          Two decades after hemophiliacs first accused four drug makers of intentionally selling them HIV-contaminated blood products, lawyers from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein are seeking class status for at least 2,000 U.S. and foreign plaintiffs who say they suffered similar damages.
          The complaint alleges that Baxter Healthcare Corp., Bayer, Armour Pharmaceutical Co. and Alpha Therapeutic Corp. sold contaminated blood serum overseas for nearly two years after it withdrew the product -- under FDA pressure -- from the U.S. market. Additionally, Lieff Cabraser lawyers say the companies knowingly infected Americans with hepatitis C.
          "It's a story about companies knowing they had a blood product that was tainted. … The result was that 80 percent of the people who took this product died," said partner Robert Lieff, the lead attorney in the case.
          The drugs in question, known as Factor VIII and Factor IX, were considered miraculous when first released in 1980. They could stop profuse bleeding almost immediately, and quickly became a widely used therapy. But the products were made from donated blood serum, and until 1983, donors were not screened for HIV.
          In 2000, Lieff Cabraser partner Donald Arbitblit represented nine victims who opted out of a 1997 group settlement. They reached a confidential settlement with the companies.
          "Through that work, we became connected to what was a pretty connected network of worldwide hemophilia organizations," said Arbitblit.

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