Wyeth reached a settlement with a Utah woman who used its weight-loss medicine as part of the fen-phen combination, after a jury awarded her $50,000 for medical expenses.
Jurors in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas decided Wednesday that Wyeth's Pondimin diet drug caused Chris Ann Jenson's heart-valve leakage and that she should receive compensation for her injuries.
"We believe the jury was correct" in linking the drug to the heart damage, said Sean Jez, one of Jenson's lawyers. "But we don't believe the $50,000 awarded will reasonably compensate her." Jez said Wyeth agreed to settle the case after the jury returned its verdict. He declined to give the size of the accord.
The weeklong trial was the latest in Philadelphia to focus on claims concerning Wyeth's now-withdrawn diet drugs. Over the past 10 months, other Philadelphia juries have rejected claims by former users or said individuals who once used the appetite suppressant deserved as much as $560,000.
Lawrence Stein, Wyeth's general counsel, said in a statement that after the damage award both sides agreed not to go to the next phase of the case. That phase would have determined if Wyeth should be held financially responsible for paying Jenson's compensation.
Stein said the company disagreed with the jury's conclusion that Jenson should be compensated for her heart problems.
Still, the size of the award "indicates that the jury rejected the plaintiff's evaluation of Ms. Jenson's long-term medical needs," Stein said.
Jez said Jenson had been seeking at least $100,000 in damages to cover the cost of future surgeries to repair her damaged heart valves.
The drugmaker still faces thousands more fen-phen claims in the same court. Wyeth has set aside more than $21 billion to resolve fen-phen liability. Fen-phen, a diet-drug cocktail, included the company's Pondimin or Redux medicines plus the generic phentermine.
The Philadelphia cases involve former fen-phen users who declined to be part of the company's $3.75 billion class-action settlement and chose to go to trial separately.
Jenson, 44, contended she suffered moderate mitral-valve damage after taking Pondimin for about 3 1/2 months. The award was the first among the Philadelphia trials to a former fen-phen user who could only show moderate heart damage.
Shares of Wyeth, based in Madison, N.J., which reported $17.3 billion in sales last year, rose 95 cents to close at $44.11 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 12 percent in a year.
The case was Jenson v. Wyeth, 02-3783, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.