Wyeth metabolic news

WYE said it will appeal a verdict issued by the District Court of Jefferson County, Texas, 172nd Judicial District, in which a jury decided in favor of the estate of a plaintiff who had taken WYE's diet drug Pondimin fenfluramine and died of primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) four years later. According to Majority Counsel, a group of attorneys representing diet drug plaintiffs, the jury awarded $1 billion in the case. WYE said there were legal errors in the trial that will form the basis of its appeal, including the exclusion of evidence that the plaintiff used four other prescription diet drugs after she took Pondimin, some of which also carry warnings about the risk of PPH. WYE also said that at the time the plaintiff took Pondimin (in 1996 and 1997), the company had provided adequate PPH warnings in compliance with FDA requirements. According to Majority Counsel, the jury was shown a "high-level Wyeth memo detailing the company's plan to ignore FDA warnings about the dangers of these drugs, especially if used longer than 90 days." ...