A jury said Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Baxter International Inc. must pay $90 million in punitive damages for selling reusable vials of the anesthetic Propofol that a colonoscopy patient blamed for his hepatitis.
Jurors in state court in Las Vegas yesterday ordered Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corp. to pay so-called punishment damages for selling Propofol in vials large enough to be reused by doctors. Lawyers for Michael Washington and his wife alleged the retired U.S. Air Force mechanic was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2007 after getting the anesthetic from a reused vial.
