Baycol Class Action News

A Philadelphia judge has certified as a nationwide class all third-party payors that had to refund beneficiaries or insureds for purchases of the cholesterol reducer Baycol, which Pittsburgh-based Bayer Corp. voluntarily removed from the market in 2001. Named as class representatives by Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein in his opinion in In re Pennsylvania Baycol Third-Party Payor Litigation were the health funds from three area union locals: Philadelphia Firefighters Local 22, AFL-CIO District Council 47 and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers Local 1201. Class counsel said that they believe there are at least 10,000 third-party payors across the country who could eventually become members of the class and that they expect the class to also include insurers and employer benefits plans, in addition to union local health funds. "To my knowledge, this is one of the first class actions that has been certified for third-party payors -- such as health and welfare funds -- in the United States," said class co-counsel and ATLA member Stewart Cohen of Kessler Cohen & Roth in Philadelphia, who is working on the case with William Marvin of the same firm.

Asher Hawkins, The Legal Intelligencer, Law.com, 04/12/2005. For complete story, search