YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS 
Fen-Phen was marketed in the U.S. from April 1996 until September 1997 by one of the world's largest drug makers, American Home Products. The company spent millions of dollars to promote the drug as a safe and effective way to lose weight.
Unfortunately, the company knew that there were serious risks . The company also went out of its way to minimize these risks in order to get the drug approved by the FDA. In documents uncovered by lawyers, the company exhibited a striking disregard for the safety of the nearly 6 million people who were prescribed Fen-Phen.
American Home Products knew that its product could cause PPH because of a similar product, called Aminorex marketed in Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That diet drug resulted in a ten-fold increase in PPH in the years following its use. They hoped that the incidence of PPH would be so small that it wouldn't be noticed. If it had not been for the heart valve disease controversy, it might not have been noticed until millions more people had taken these dangerous drugs.
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Internal company reports show that American Home Products deliberately tried to suppress the drug's association with PPH and downplayed the risks as insignificant. |
Widespread cases of PPH and heart valve disease (unrelated to PPH) ultimately forced the FDA to crack down and force the withdrawal of Fen-Phen from the market. On September 15, 1997, American Healath Product and the FDA announced that there would be no further sales of Pondimin and Redux in the United States.
Because of the unmistakable proof of heart valve damage caused by Fen-Phen, American Home Products has paid billions of dollars to compensate people injured by taking its products. PPH was a side issue, because of its rarity as compared to heart valve disease. However, several lawyers began to explore what the company knew about this disease. They discovered in the course of litigation that PPH was a known risk, that the company chose to ignore and hoped that doctors would follow suit. The vast majority of PPH claims are treated as individual cases against the company. The average person with a confirmed PPH diagnosis is likely to receive a several million-dollar settlement.
We trust that our system of approval for medications puts the health and safety of patients first. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. An experienced attorney may be able to get compensation for people who have been victimized by the negligence of careless drug manufacturers.
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