Judge awards $414M in diet drugs case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - April 9, 2008 The decision issued Tuesday by Chief District Judge Harvey
Bartle III brings the total amount of legal fees awarded to more
than $570 million. At least 70 law firms were involved in the
decade-long court battle that involved thousands of plaintiffs.
"The raw time expended has been tremendous, but we have no
reason to believe it has been unnecessary," Bartle wrote, noting
that more than 578,000 hours were spent on the case through March
2007.Attorneys who worked on the mammoth fen-phen
diet drug lawsuit were awarded nearly $414 million in additional
legal fees by a federal judge who calculated the case had consumed
the equivalent of nearly 66 years of litigation.
"(I)t is the equivalent of approximately 24,000 days, or almost
66 years, of around-the-clock work on this litigation," Bartle
wrote in his 125-page ruling.
Arnold Levin, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs, said
he was satisfied with the decision. The case "required an awful
lot of work by a lot of attorneys," Levin said Wednesday.
The judge had previously awarded about $156 million in legal
fees, he said.
Madison, N.J.-based pharmaceutical maker Wyeth, formerly known
as American Home Products, produced fenfluramine, half of the diet
drug cocktail known as fen-phen. It was sold under the brand name
Pondimin, along with a chemical cousin called Redux.
The drug combination was pulled from the market in 1997 amid
concerns that it caused heart-valve defects and other problems. The
phentermine half is still sold.
Levin also noted there is $20 million set aside for future fees
because "there's still an abundance of legal work to be done in
the case." Payments can be made to potential litigants who display
health problems through 2015.
Wyeth originally settled the case in 1999 for $3.75 billion, but
that amount has since grown. Company spokesman Douglas Petkus
declined to comment Wednesday.