LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Two drug companies want a Nevada judge to cut a $500 million jury award in the first civil trial stemming from a hepatitis C outbreak more than two years ago.
Attorneys for Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corp. filed documents challenging what they called a "grossly excessive" punitive verdict.
The companies ask Clark County District Court Judge Jessie Walsh to reduce the overall $505 million award to a "single digit" ratio over the $5 million compensatory award awarded to Henry and Lorraine Chanin.
Teva was held liable for $356 million and Baxter for $144 million in punitive damages.
Teva made and Baxter distributed a drug the Chanins' lawyer say was misused when Henry Chanin contracted hepatitis C during a colonoscopy a now-closed clinic run by Dr. Dipak Desai.
