Sixteen Years On, It’s Fen-Phen All Over Again

Washington, DCIt may have been pulled off the market 16 years ago, but for some, Fen-Phen remains a scourge. That’s because the once-popular diet pill combination of Fenfluramine and Phentermine is alleged to foster serious side effects that can take years to materialize.

To that end, there are about a hundred cases pending in Fen-Phen Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) as of January 14 of this year. According to a release by PRWeb Newswire (2/26/13), one of the most recent lawsuits was filed in September of last year in Delaware District Court. The plaintiff in the suit claims to suffer from one of the more common Fen-Phen side effects - Primary pulmonary hypertension, or Fen-Phen PPH - as the result of using Fen-Phen.

That was the same month that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was unsuccessful in its petition to have claims dismissed. More recently, with regard to allegations of Fen-Phen heart damage and associated litigation, a US District Judge this past January denied a subsequent motion by Pfizer with regard to a Fen-Phen lawsuit (Pennsylvania Eastern District Court, Case No. 2:2012cv20010).

The aforementioned lawsuit is now part of the Fen-Phen MDL (IN RE: Diet Drugs (Phentermine/Fenfluramine/Dexfenfluramine) Products Liability Litigation, No. 1203). The plaintiff alleges Fen-Phen side effects including, but not limited to, PPH.

As a weight loss aid, there is little doubt the Fen-Phen duo was effective. But the combo’s propensity to foster Fen-Phen heart valve damage and other adverse reactions caught the ire of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which requested and got a recall of Fen-Phen in 1997.

Some may have felt the Fen-Phen recall would have been the end of it. However, for many Fen-Phen consumers, serious health complications years after stopping the now controversial diet aid has resulted in ongoing litigation 16 years after Fen-Phen disappeared from the market.

An initial Fen-Phen product liability litigation dealt with a specific set of Fen-Phen side effects. However, plaintiffs alleging a Fen-Phen heart defect and specifically Fen-Phen PPH are keeping the litigation alive well over a decade after the Fen-Phen recall.

What’s more, given the latency of Fen-Phen in the body and the propensity for Fen-Phen problems to emerge years after stopping the drug, it completely resizes the usual window for making a claim under the Statute of Limitations. To that point, any prospective plaintiff who has encountered the late emergence of Fen-Phen side effects even after stopping use of Fen-Phen in 1997 would be wise to consult a Fen-Phen attorney to explore your options.