October 2005 Baycol / Lipobay Settlement Update From Bayer

In the first part of November 2005 Bayer AG said that it has paid $1.143 billion to settle 3,058 Baycol / Lipobay cases worldwide.  Further, Bayer said that across those the 3,058 Baycol / Lipobay settlements the drug company paid an average $373,733 per case.  As had been previously reported, as of June 30, 2005 Bayer had paid $1.138 billion to settle 3,017 Baycol / Lipobay lawsuits worldwide.

Consistent with its last status update in July 2005, Bayer repeated that it is aware of less than 50 Baycol cases in the U.S. that "in our opinion hold a potential for settlement."  Bayer also cautioned, again, that it cannot rule out the possibility that additional Baycol / Lipobay cases involving rhabdomyolysis and, perhaps, other serious side effects may "come to our attention". Lastly, like before, Bayer mentioned that there could be further settlements of Lipobay cases outside the U.S.

In contrast, according to this October 2005 update by Bayer, the total number of pending Baycol cases increased to 6,055, up a bit from 5,986 cases at the end of June 2005.

Bayer is clearly taking the position that it does not intend to pay any settlements to thousands of cases that are still pending in the federal court Baycol MDL.

(Posted by: Tom Lamb)