Lawyers target Israeli medical supplier

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Attorneys for a Las Vegas doctor's patients who contracted hepatitis say they're going after an Israeli medical supplier for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lead plaintiffs lawyer Will Kemp said he will target Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in a series of multimillion-dollar suits in an attempt to garner settlements for about 300 former patients who say they contracted hepatitis and more than 4,000 others who were possibly exposed to the illness at three now-closed clinics run by Dr. Dipak Desai, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Kemp said Desai's medical malpractice insurance would never be able to cover the $300 million he contends is owed the patients, and so is looking for the $11.1 billion medical company to pay, saying it is liable for distributing endoscopy products that led to the potentially deadly hepatitis C infections.

"You have to have a knife to their throat in a back alley to get money out of them," Kemp told the Sun. "They never settle easy."

The lawyer says the patients were exposed to the hepatitis C virus through the use of contaminated drug vials from 2005-2008.

Attorney Michael Stoberski, representing Teva, declined to comment to the Sun.