In March 2013, the company was hit with a proposed class action lawsuit, initiated by Olean General Hospital in New York state court. This suit pointed to the 2009 FDA warning and accused the company of negligence, according to Griffin Hospital’s lawsuit.
But while all this was going on, Novo Nordisk conducted training sessions at Griffin Hospital, teaching medical staff how to use the product on at least five occasions, including September 2008, July 2009, September 2010, October 2010 and March 2014, the suit claims. The company never informed staff at these times about the risk of backflow, the suit says.
Griffin Hospital stopped using the pens on May 7, 2014, and about a week later notified the thousands of patients that they might have been exposed to a number of blood-borne illnesses, such as hepatitis and HIV. It also offered free blood testing, the suit said.
In December 2015, those patients hit the hospital with a class action lawsuit, Anthony Diaz, et al. v. Griffin Health Services Corporation, in state court. The hospital settled the suit for $1 million, Griffin Hospital said.
