Victims and government agree to settle CJD suit

Plaintiffs/victims and the government over Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) suits reached a basic settlement, the main point being the payment of damages to all victims.

The plaintiffs on February 27 accepted the February 22 recommendations by the Otsu and Tokyo district courts to make an out-of-court settlement, followed by the government on the next day. A German pharmaceutical company also accepted this.

Both sides are expected to reach a final settlement by the end of March, on the premise that the government apologizes to the plaintiffs for delaying the ban on the use of infected dura mater and taking no preventive measures.

The court recommendations urged the defendant company to pay about one billion yen (7.69 million dollars), and the government 162.1 million yen to patients, or about 60 million yen each.

Tani San'ichi, plaintiff group chair on the Otsu Court suit, at a press conference said, "We want the government to officially accept its responsibility for the case, swiftly apologize us, and pledge that never again it will repeat such a tragedy."

The plaintiffs and their lawyers on February 27 met Health Minister Sakaguchi Chikara and urged him to admit the ministry's responsibility for the case, and apologize to all patients so that the case be settled immediately and completely.

Plaintiffs and lawyers will carry out serial actions in March in front of the health ministry building, such as street campaigns, sit-ins, and a "human chain."

A supra partisan Dietmembers' group to think about the CJD case, on February 27 held a meeting in the Diet Building on the recommendations by the two courts and encouraged the plaintiffs. (end)