Penn. judge rescinds $1.4 mln fen-phen verdict

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Wyeth Thursday said a Philadelphia judge rescinded a verdict against the drugmaker, in which the company had been ordered to pay three Utah women a total of almost $1.4 million for alleged harm from one of the company’s recalled “fen-phen” diet drugs.

The Madison, New Jersey-based company said Judge Mark Bernstein of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled that the sole expert witness for the women had systematically provided questionable or “illogical” scientific testimony.

Wyeth said Bernstein ordered a new trial in the cases of Lucy Hansen, Joyce Jensen and Mildred Hill, who won their favorable verdict last November.

The company said the judge on Feb. 23 overturned the favorable verdict of a fourth female Utah plaintiff in the same trial - Geri McMurdie - who had been awarded $780,000 in compensatory damages.

All four plaintiffs alleged they suffered heart valve damage as a result of taking Pondimin, one of the drugs commonly used in the fen-phen slimming cocktail.

Pondimin and another Wyeth appetite suppressant, Redux, were recalled in 1997 after being linked to heart valve problems and a highly fatal lung condition called primary pulmonary hypertension.

Wyeth has taken charges of over $21 billion since the recall to satisfy claims from former users of the medicines, but still faces about 60,000 lawsuits in the United States. An estimated 6 million Americans took Wyeth’s two drugs before they were recalled. 

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