Fertility provider Monash IVF has agreed to settle a class action with patients who sued over a test used to screen embryos. Lawyers say the settlement was reached after the class action revealed shocking allegations against employees of repro-med, a Monash company.
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00:00The class action was all about this embryo testing method which Monash IVF started using
00:09a few years ago, and it was marketed as this sort of innovative, industry-leading method
00:15of testing embryos to see whether there were abnormalities in them.
00:21It was sort of seen as beneficial because this testing method was non-invasive, so when
00:26people signed up to do it, they thought that they were getting leading test results.
00:32Well, what happened, later emerged, was that these testing results actually weren't that
00:38accurate, and there were some false positives that were being generated, and as a result,
00:43there were women who were deciding to discard embryos thinking that they were abnormal or
00:50had issues, and later on it emerged that those embryos were possibly okay.
00:56And obviously, for some of these women who've embarked on an IVF journey as sort of their
01:02last-ditch attempt to have a child, to find out later that these embryos have possibly
01:10been wrongly discarded was incredibly devastating.
01:13So a class action was launched in Victoria Supreme Court.
01:17It did include women from around the country.
01:20In total, there were more than 700.
01:23This case was going on in the pretrial phase for a few years and was actually set to go
01:28to trial, but today it was revealed that a settlement had been reached, $56 million in
01:37compensation to be paid by Monash IVF to the people in this case, and that is what's going
01:45to bring the case to an end.
01:51There was a lawyer who did speak on behalf of the people in this case.
01:57Michelle Margolett is her name.
02:00She spoke to journalists outside the Supreme Court earlier today.
02:03Let's take a listen to what she had to say.
02:06Has had real, lasting, devastating impacts on people's mental health and also on their
02:14ability to plan for a family.
02:16There are many unanswered what ifs that will never be resolved.
02:21So Christian, what has been the response from Monash?
02:24Monash IVF has put out a statement and I'll just read some of it to you briefly.
02:29They've said that they believe it's in the best interests of their patients to resolve
02:35the case instead of taking it to a trial.
02:38And they say we acknowledge this case has been challenging for many people and we regret
02:43any distress or hurt that may have been experienced.
02:47But importantly, Monash IVF has not admitted any liability in this case.
02:54As for the next steps, well, it's a matter of divvying up this $56 million between the
03:00people involved.
03:02It is a fairly complicated process because the court has to look at the legal fees that
03:06will be involved and they have to make an assessment as to whether the settlement that's
03:10been agreed is a fair one.
03:12So this case is still not over.
03:14There will be more hearings to come in the upcoming weeks and months.