Several Hundred Fen-Phen Cases Still Pending and Headed to Trial
On October 31, 2005 the drug company Wyeth announced that it had won the latest three fen-phen diet-drug cases: Lee Ann Brunson v. Wyeth; Colleen Rondas v. Wyeth; and, and Lonnie Zimmerman v. Wyeth. These three fen-phen cases had alleged that Wyeth was liable for heart-valve injuries caused by the diet drug Pondimin, a product once marketed by Wyeth. The three cases had been consolidated for a single trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The trial began on October 18, 2005 before The Honorable Stephen Levin.
The defense verdict for this set of three fen-phen cases made October 2005 a good month for Wyeth and its lawyers. According to news reports, of the 10 plaintiffs originally scheduled to have had their fen-phen case heard in one of the two October 2005 trial groups, five voluntarily dismissed their cases before trial, four cases resulted in verdicts for Wyeth, and one resulted in a verdict of $88,000 for the plaintiff.
As background, nearly six million people took Wyeth's diet drugs Redux and Pondimin, which were one-half of the diet-drug combination known as fen-phen, before Wyeth withdrew those drugs from the market in 1997. Since that time, Wyeth has faced thousands of lawsuits alleging heart-valve damage from the use of Redux and Pondimin. To date, Wyeth has set aside about $21.1 billion to cover its legal defense costs as well as settlements and trial verdicts.
At the same time as announcing the October 2005 fen-phen trial wins, a Wyeth spokesman said there are several hundred fen-phen cases still pending and, seemingly, headed to trial. These remaining fen-phen cases were ones which plaintiffs' lawyers had "opted-out" of the multibillion-dollar settlement fund called the American Home Products ("AHP") / Wyeth fen-phen Trust, which has been besieged by allegations of fraud.
(Posted by: Tom Lamb)