The fen-phen case, in all its turns, illustrates the conflicts and collusion that are inherent in mass-tort litigation.
FORBES: Superlawyer Chesley Sucked Into Kentucky Disciplinary Probe
Regulators and companies remember the fen-phen disaster, when a drug from Wyeth resulted in the biggest pharmaceutical tort ever.
You're to be forgiven if you thought the fen-phen crisis was over.
The Great Fen Project aims to create the wetland between Huntingdon and Peterborough by obtaining land adjacent to the Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen nature reserves.
For the next several years he was consumed with the fen-phen cases, but argued he worked under the authority of partners who made the key decisions.
FORBES: Superlawyer Chesley Sucked Into Kentucky Disciplinary Probe
Drugs that stimulate the next subtype, the 5-HT2B receptor, have been associated with heart valve disease, the major reason for withdrawal of the fenfluramine part of the fen-phen weight loss combination drug.
That will eliminate one of the gaping holes spotlighted by the fen-phen and asbestos cases, where pliant doctors could "diagnose" injuries that in many cases didn't occur or weren't attributable to the product in question.
For example, tens of thousands of asbestos claimants probably have lungs injured from smoking, not asbestos--and physicians were accused of deliberately fiddling with the controls to make echocardiograms look like heart-valve damage to collect more money from the fen-phen trust.
Franz Hefti, a vice president at Avid Radiopharmaceuticals who used to head neuroscience research at Merck and Genentech, says that at least one large pharma firm has in the last several years quashed a candidate similar to lorcaserin, not because of any science but because of the psychological link to the fen-phen disaster.
Fenfluramine, the "fen" in fen-phen (the "phen" is phentermine), also stimulates serotonin but in a much broader way, hitting serotonin receptors throughout the body, including a type on the outside of cells near the heart.
Fry is president of the Great Fen Project, which aims to create a 3, 700 hectare wetland in the county.
Studies have since shown that stimulating the latter receptor was the reason fen-phen caused heart valve problems.
Chesley probably regrets getting involved in the Kentucky fen-phen case now, but he was eager enough back in 1999.
The project would like to raise water levels across the old Great Fen area to bring back the reeds, grasslands and rare plants, such as insect-eating bladderwort, which are now confined to the Woodwalton and Holme reserves.
"Given the experience of fen-phen, it would border on malpractice if Merck's lawyers allowed the same kind of 'litigation doctors' to provide evidence for claims, " said Lester Brickman, professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law and expert on mass-tort litigation.
That's what happened in the 1990s with fen-phen, another diet drug combination that includes phentermine.
It is estimated some sites have about 20 dormice in 100 nest boxes, but at Arger Fen the population peaks at about five.
He said that one of the problems with fen-phen, a diet drug combo that wound up causing heart-valve problems, was that doctors were too eager to hand them out.
Who can forget the one sent by an American Home Products executive who complained about spending his "waning years signing checks to fat people who are a little afraid of some silly lung problem" and blew open the case on the diet drug fen-phen?
One example was the one sent by an American Home Products executive who complained about spending his "waning years signing checks to fat people who are a little afraid of some silly lung problem" and blew open the case on the diet drug fen-phen.
Unlike Xenical, previous diet drugs, such as Redux and Phenfluramine, best known as the "phen" in Fen-Phen, worked on the brain to control the body's feeling of "fullness".
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The car stopped for just nine seconds in Fen Drayton, where the guns, ammunition and walking stick were dumped, the court heard.
Wyeth (nyse: WYE - news - people ) hoped the plan would cap its spiraling liability for fen-phen, the diet drug combination that has been linked to potentially fatal heart conditions.
Painted between 1814 and 1815, The Stour Valley And Dedham Village depicts Langham church, Dedham church, Fen Bridge and the bend in the River Stour.
"Some people went along, but many attorneys realized it would be a tough sell for their clients, " said Mark Pruner, vice president of RD Legal Funding and editor of the firm's Fen-Phen Settlement Observer newsletter.
The long-running scandal over a fen-phen case gone awry has already destroyed the careers of at least three lawyers as well as the Kentucky judge who oversaw the original lawsuit.
In 1996 he converted the centers into clinics for doctors to prescribe fen-phen diet drugs, only to run into the little problem that these drugs can cause fatal heart problems.
Called lorcaserin, it stimulates production of serotonin, the same brain chemical that fen-phen did.
Its hot spot: Cambridge University, also called "Silicon Fen" or the Cambridge Cluster.
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