Fen-Phen Accord Reportedly Tops $6 Million

American Home Products Corp. paid at least $6 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the fen-phen diet drug combination caused the death of a 35-year-old Texas woman, people familiar with the settlement said. The settlement, announced in a state court in Houston, headed off jury deliberations in the case. American Home’s Pondimin diet drug was blamed for causing the lung ailment known as primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) that killed Mary Marisa Smith. She took Pondimin, one of the drugs that make up the fen-phen combination, for 11 months to lose weight after giving birth to her second child. The Smith suit was the first linking PPH to fen-phen use that has gone to trial. American Home agreed to settle two other suits alleging Pondimin caused heart valve damage in other dieters, sources said. They said American Home agreed to pay at least $6 million to get the Smith family and other plaintiffs to drop their claims, making it the largest settlement so far in the ongoing round of litigation over fen-phen. “That report is from a source that is uninformed and any amount stated is unfounded,” said Doug Petkus, American Home spokesman. The Smiths’ lawyers failed to return calls for comment on the settlement. Terms were not disclosed. American Home faces more than 3,100 lawsuits alleging it hid the health risks of Pondimin. American Home shares closed up 81 cents at $53.44 on the New York Stock Exchange.