Judge Balks at Testimony in AHP Fen-Phen Lawsuit, Paper Says
January 09, 2006The judge presiding over a wrongful-death lawsuit that names American Home Products Corp. rejected a medical expert's conclusions about drugs used in the fen-phen diet-drug combination, saying they were too speculative to be admitted as evidence, the Boston Globe reported.
Judge Raymond J. Brassard, who last year held a hearing on whether Fisons Corp.'s drug phentermine helped cause heart problems that led to Mary L. Linnen's death, yesterday barred Texas A&M; University scientist Paul Wellman from being called as a witness because there was no evidence that Wellman ``utilized sound scientific methodology in arriving at his opinions in this case,'' Brassard said. Wellman's conclusions have been cited in more than 400 fen-phen lawsuits filed across the country, the paper said.
Health problems caused by the diet-drug combination -- prescribed more than 6 million times before American Home Products pulled it off the market in 1997 -- may not surface for as many as six years after patients stop taking it.
Madison, New Jersey, Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) (Boston Globe 1/6)
