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medpundit |
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Wednesday, April 28, 2004A jury in a state court in Beaumont, Tex., ruled yesterday that the pharmaceutical company Wyeth should pay $1 billion to the family of a woman who died from lung disease that the plaintiff's lawyers said was caused by a diet drug the company made in the 1990's The huge award has other lawyers salivating: Plaintiffs' lawyers say Wyeth faces dozens of such lawsuits and assert that the company will now find resolving those cases much more difficult and expensive. "There's no question that it will have an impact on what plaintiffs' lawyers are willing to take, and it's going to embolden more plaintiffs' lawyers to try more of those cases," said Peter Kraus, a lawyer at Waters & Kraus in Dallas. Mr. Kraus said he represents 11 fen-phen plaintiffs with heart valve damage. "It's a huge win," he said. Other lawyers said there are many plaintiffs with lung disease that they say was caused by the diet drug. "My office has over 100 cases similar to this one, and we anticipate that many of these will be filed by the end of this year," George Fleming, a lawyer at Fleming & Associates in Houston, said in a statement from a group of lawyers representing people who say they were harmed by fen-phen. No matter that the woman developed lung disease four years after she stopped taking the drug. They went after the deep pockets - and won. posted by Sydney on 4/28/2004 08:22:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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