JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Penny Luckel clutched a heart-shaped pillow as her attorneys won a $200-million settlement against the maker of the diet drug fen-phen.
The Mississippi woman had recently recovered from open heart surgery to replace a leaky heart valve she said was caused by taking American Home Products Corp.'s drug.
"When she would cough, it would make her hurt," said attorney Mark Davis, who represented Luckel and more than 2,000 others who claimed the drug caused heart or lung damage. "It's a sad case."
The settlement was reached Tuesday in the same Jefferson County court that last year yielded a nearly $400 million settlement involving a different set of plaintiffs and the drug maker.
The amount of the latest settlement was sealed by the court, but attorney Robert Johnson, who represented American Home Products, said the amount "was half of what we settled the last case for."
About 6 million people took the drugs under the brand names Pondimin and Redux, a chemical cousin, after fen-phen went on the market in the mid-1990s.
Fenfluramine, the "fen" in the drug combination, was withdrawn in September 1997 after a Mayo Clinic study linked it to potentially fatal heart valve damage. The second drug in the combination, phentermine, was not linked to any problems.
American Home Products agreed earlier this year to pay up to $3.75 billion in a proposed settlement that could cover all 6 million users.
About 45,000 fen-phen users refused the settlement and retained the right to sue for punitive damages. More than 9,000 fen-phen lawsuits have been filed against American Home Products.
Davis said lawyers around the country pursuing fen-phen cases were watching the latest Mississippi trial, settled after the second day of testimony.