Sanofi subsidiaries and Bristol Myers Squibb will pay $700 million in Hawaii to settle a dispute over the anticoagulant Plavix

The American pharmaceutical group Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and three subsidiaries of the French laboratory Sanofi in the United States will pay $700 million (€622 million) to Hawaii to settle a legal dispute over its anticoagulant Plavix, the American island state announced Friday.

Hawaii had been suing the companies for more than a decade, accusing them of failing to disclose the drug's limited effectiveness. According to the lawsuit, studies indicated that Plavix's effectiveness was lower for about 30 percent of patients, particularly for people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, who make up a significant portion of Hawaii's population.

The agreement provides for BMS and Sanofi to share the $700 million in compensation equally, according to a statement from Hawaii's governor and attorney general. Governor Josh Green called the agreement a "major victory" for his state. "It doesn't matter if it's a small business or a multi-billion dollar oil company, we will relentlessly enforce Hawaii's consumer protection laws," added state Attorney General Anne Lopez in the statement.

The agreement ends any avenue of appeal, after a long legal saga punctuated by a first trial, whose judgment was partially overturned on appeal, then a second trial at first instance. At the end of this, a judge ordered BMS and Sanofi subsidiaries to pay $916 million to Hawaii in May 2024. The magistrate then ruled that the laboratories had deliberately "slowed down and reduced research on Plavix for more than a decade." The two pharmaceutical groups had announced their intention to appeal.

Plavix, known generically as clopidogrel, is a blood thinner designed to reduce the risk of clots forming in blood vessels by preventing platelets from clumping together.