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LAWSUIT

Actelion to appeal damages order

Swiss biotechnology group Actelion said Wednesday that it would appeal against $547 million in damages awarded by a California court to Japanese company Asahi Kasei Pharma.

Published: 4 May 2011 09:26 CEST

Actelion said in a statement that it had also filed a short-term court motion to try to pare down compensation, partly due to previous arbitration on the issue.

“The company will file appropriate further post-trial motions and will appeal the entire judgment,” it added.

It believes the ruling is “neither supported by the facts nor is it correct as a matter of law.”

The dispute dates back to November 2008 when Asahi filed suit over the cancellation of an agreement with Actelion subsidiary Cotherix to licence and develop a drug compound called fasudil.

Its current motion is asking for a choice to be made between damages of $358.95 million for alleged lost profits or $187.4 million in alleged development costs; and for an additional deduction of $78.4 million due to previous arbitration.

The biotech firm noted that punitive damages of 30 million dollars had also been awarded against some company executives.

LAWSUIT

Spanish woman sues for millions after learning she was switched at birth

A 19-year-old woman is seeking millions of euros in damages after it emerged that she was accidentally swapped with another newborn at a Spanish hospital nearly two decades ago.

Published: 8 September 2021 15:45 CEST
Spanish woman sues for millions after learning she was switched at birth
Photo: Loic Venance/AFP

The babies were mixed up in 2002 after they were born five hours apart and placed in incubators at the San Millan de Logrono in northern Spain, due to a “one-off human error,” regional health authorities said.

The error was discovered four years ago after one of the girls who was switched underwent a DNA test as part of dispute over child support payments.

The woman, now 19, is demanding compensation of €3 million ($3.5 million) from health authorities for having been handed to the wrong family, her lawyer Jose Saez-Morga told AFP.

“We are talking about huge damages, which will last her whole life and which will never be repaired,” he said.

Health authorities in the Rioja region have so far only offered the woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, 215,000 euros in compensation, he added.

The regional health chief, Sara Alba, said computer systems back then did not have as many details as they do today, and stressed that a similar mix-up could not happen again.

Officials are “not aware” of any other cases at the hospital, which has since closed, she told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We have not been able to determine who is to blame for this mistake,” Alba said.

“It was a one-off human error which could not happen today. We can guarantee that this will not happen again.”

Saez-Morga said the other young woman switched at birth and her family have also undergone DNA testing.

She has also asked to remain anonymous and has so far not filed a lawsuit, he added.

According to Spanish media reports, one woman was sent to live with a couple who she believed to be her parents while the other, who has filed the lawsuit, was raised mostly by a woman she mistakenly thought was her grandmother.

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