PPH AND DIET DRUGS
PPH, or Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, causes an estimated 125 to 150 deaths per year. PPH mostly affects young women, and patients experience symptoms between ages 30 and 45. There is no cure for PPH and the survival rate is 30% at 3 years.
Although PPH has no known cause, it is highly linked to the diet drugs Fen-Phen, Redux and Pondimin.
Pondimin, Redux and Fen-Phen were three of the most widely prescribed diet drugs in the U.S. Made by American Home Products, one of the world's largest drug companies, these prescription drugs worked to lower people's appetite by interfering with the body's production of serotonin. When first introduced, these diet drugs seemed to be effective weight loss treatments and were received with excitement. However, Pondimin, Redux and Fen-Phen use has been associated with pulmonary hypertension and it is one of the main risk factors for the disease.
In 1996, sales of Pondimin and Redux totaled well over 20 million prescriptions. According to company estimates, 4 million people have used Pondimin and another 2 million have used Redux.
During the period from March to August 1997, the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota observed and reported an association between the use of Pondimin and/or Redux and valvular heart disease (VHD). Pondimin and Redux were designed to suppress the appetite by altering brain levels of serotonin, but both were withdrawn simultaneously from the market in September of 1997 when they were linked to the occurrence of serious cardiac valvular disease and primary pulmonary hypertension. Under pressure from the FDA, concerned medical authorities and injured Fen-Phen patients who had filed lawsuits, American Home Products took the drugs off the market.
A recent Mayo Clinic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that as high as one-third of a patient sampling of Fen-Phen diet pill users had evidence of heart valve disease. The study found that there was a high incidence of heart valve disease in patients taking these diet pills, without any other known reason for valve disease.
Studies estimate that treatment with certain appetite suppressant drugs increases the risk of getting PPH from about one to 28 cases per million person-years (one person-year represents a patient treated for one year.)
People who used one or a combination of these drugs over a longer period are at greater risk, but cases of PPH have developed in people who took the drug for as little as two months. New studies by some of the world's foremost experts on PPH have shown that people who took diet drugs five years ago are still at risk of developing primary pulmonary hypertension. New cases of PPH in patients who have used Redux or Pondimin alone or in combination with other weight-loss agents are continuing to be diagnosed.
Since 1997 millions of Fen-Phen patients have filed lawsuits against American Home Products. The vast majority of these claims were for heart valve disease and have been settled in January and May 2003 as part of a 4 billion dollar settlement. This settlement did not affect victims of PPH. So if you have been diagnosed with PPH and took these diet drugs, you may be entitled to compensation from the manufacturer.
If you or a loved one has PPH and took Fen-Phen, Pondimin or Redux, you need legal help now.
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