Cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA is not obligated to pay for annual low-dose lung cancer CT screening for healthy smokers of Marlboro cigarettes, a Massachusetts federal jury decided on Wednesday, according to an article on Law360.
In a class-action suit against the cigarette giant joined by tens of thousands of smokers (the exact number is sealed), the jury wrapped up deliberations Wednesday morning after closing arguments were heard on Tuesday, Law360 reported.
Philip Morris cannot be held accountable for the cost of screening healthy individuals, the jury said, rejecting plaintiff's arguments that the firm had deliberately sold the smokers a defective product.
Philip Morris' attorneys had countered that there was no safer alternative to the product Philip Morris sold because consumers had rejected low-tar alternatives the company promoted heavily in the 1980s. The case was the third of its kind and the third to be decided in favor of Philip Morris, the attorneys said.
Annual low-dose CT lung cancer screening costs about $500 per scan, the article noted.
