Wednesday, June 30, 1999
Fen-phen class-action filed
Chesley's move among 1st in Ohio
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati attorney Stanley Chesley filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against one of the makers of the diet drug fen-phen.
The lawsuit is among the first of its kind in Ohio seeking damages from the maker of the once-popular drug, which has been linked to heart problems.
Although hundreds of suits have been filed in the Cincinnati area, Mr. Chesley's seeks class-action status that could consolidate the cases.
“We're looking forward to trying it and litigating it,” said Mr. Chesley, who is co-chairman of an 11-member team representing people suing the makers of the drug.
To date, he said, about 3,500 lawsuits have been filed nationwide against American Home Products (AHP), the New Jersey-based company that produced the drug.
AHP's drug division, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, is known as the maker of Pondimin — a brand name for fenfluramine, the “fen” portion of fen-phen.
The company has been the target of lawsuits since 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration pulled fenfluramine from the market because of evidence that it may have scarred users' heart valves.
Phentermine, the other half of fen-phen, has not been linked to illness.
The lawsuit Mr. Chesley filed Tuesday alleges that more than 14 million prescriptions for Pondimin have been written, many of them in Ohio.
The suit was filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Arlene Anderson and Paul Burns. Ms. Anderson and Mr. Burns, both Cincinnati residents, claim they are at risk for heart valve injuries and other ailments related to their use of the drug.
Their lawsuit alleges the company did not adequately warn users of the potential health risks.
Mr. Chesley said the recent settlement of a similar lawsuit in Texas would have no impact on the case in Cincinnati. “It doesn't resolve anything but the Texas case,” he said.
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