Fen-Phen Case Denied Class-Action Status

American Home Products Corp., the maker of an element of the discontinued fen-phen diet drug combination, said a California judge denied class-action certification to a group of users that sued the company to force it to pay for medical monitoring. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daniel Solis Pratt denied the dieters’ request that he combine their suits to make AHP pay for screening to detect heart valve damage or lung disease connected to fen-phen use. The fen-phen diet drug combination was prescribed more than 6 million times before AHP pulled it off the market in 1997. Fen-phen consisted of fenfluramine-based Pondimin, an AHP drug, mixed with phentermine, a generic drug. In the ruling, Pratt said the plaintiffs’ varying circumstances, such as their weights and medical histories, made a class-action suit improper, the company said. Instead, the plaintiffs will have to litigate their suits individually. A New Jersey class-action on Aug. 11 became the first case seeking medical monitoring of symptom-free fen-phen users to go to trial. Shares of Madison, N.J.-based AHP rose $1.31 to close at $46.94 on the New York Stock Exchange.