Pan Pharmaceuticals customers awarded $67m compensation from Australian government

CUSTOMERS of Pan Pharmaceuticals who sued the federal government after the company was shut down have been awarded $67.5 million in compensation.

CUSTOMERS of Pan Pharmaceuticals who sued the federal government after the company was shut down have been awarded $67.5 million in compensation.

The settlement, approved by Federal Court judge Geoffrey Flick, was negotiated without admissions of wrongdoing by the government, said Andrew Thorpe, legal adviser to the class action of 170 former customers of Pan whose businesses suffered losses as a result of the company's closure.

"However, it does end an eight-year saga that commenced on 28 April 2003, when the government shut down Pan Pharmaceuticals without notice," he told reporters outside court.

"On that day, hundreds of people lost their jobs, $350 million was wiped off the Sydney stock exchange and scores of business, customers and service providers of Pan were very badly affected."

In March 2003, the government's Therapeutic Goods Administration suspended Pan's licence after excessive amounts of some ingredients were found in its Travacalm tablets.

In 2008, the 170 sponsors, customers and creditors of Pan, as well as distributors and retailers of its products, filed the class action.