The plaintiffs had sued the drug firms and the government for giving them blood products tainted with the Hepatitis C virus, the Daily Yomiuri Online reported.
A judge at the Sendai District Court in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture ruled that Mitsubishi Pharma Corp. and its subsidiary were responsible for infecting a 54-year-old woman. The woman was infected with the virus through a fibrinogen, a blood product, given to her in August 1987. A third drug company, which was not named, and the government, were not held responsible for the infection.
The judge denied compensation to five other plaintiffs in the class-action suit who claimed that they were also given tainted blood products between February 1972 and June 1988. The plaintiffs, one of whom is already dead, had sought compensation totaling $2.6 million.
There were four other similar class-action lawsuits filed across Japan by 172 plaintiffs. But the latest court decision was the only one that did not hold the government accountable. The rulings in previous lawsuits vary in terms of the periods when compensations must apply.
Meanwhile, the government is preparing a package of assistance to the infected patients.
