Fen Phen and PPH Information

Dr. Michael Weintraub developed fen phen while working as a researcher at the University of Rochester for the short-term management of obesity. The combination of phentermine and pondimin in a low dose was found to suppress appetite to fuel weight loss and have fewer side effects then when the drugs were taken individually. The popularity and success of fen phen was immediate, with 18,000,000 prescriptions written for fen phen in 1996 alone.

The results of using fen phen proved to be successful. A 1992 study involving 120 obese patients that were treated with fen phen found that they lost an average of 30 pounds. Studies began to surface showing the adverse effects that fen phen causes, but the drug continued to be administered until in 1997 when the Mayo Clinic released a study that found fen phen to cause very serious health complications. The fen phen health complications involved serious and fatal heart problems. Following the Mayo Clinic report on fen phen the FDA issued a warning in July of 1997 regarding the safety of fen phen and removed it from the market completely after that.

After fen phen was taken off the shelves, numerous class actions and lawsuits followed due to the number of primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) cases that began to surface. PPH is an incurable and serious disease still being diagnosed due to the latency period between drug use and disease symptoms appearing. A 1996 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine concluded that there is a twenty-three-fold increase in the risk of developing PPH when using fen phen for more than three months.

In the U.S. there are estimates that between 6 million and 7 million people took fen phen. As of January 3, 2002, the Nationwide Class Action Settlement Agreement involving American Home Products has received Final Judicial Approval, allowing those injured by fen phen to collect the compensation they are entitled to.

Contact us to speak with a PPH Lawyer regarding your legal rights!