Wyeth says 7th Amendment to diet drug settlement gets final judicial review

After years of litigation, US health care giant Wyeth says that the Seventh Amendment to the Nationwide Diet Drug Settlement has received final judicial approval. The deal relates to the diet drugs Pondamin (fenfluramine) and Redux (dexfenfluramine) - often referred to as the fen-phen case - which were withdrawn from the market in 1997 following allegations that they had caused damage to heart valves in some patients (Marketletters passim). By end-2004, the firm said that it had set aside over $21.0 billion for legal and settlement costs in the then seven-year round of litigation.

"Final approval of the Seventh Amendment is an important milestone in our broader effort to resolve the diet drug issue," says Lawrence Stein, senior vice president and general counsel of Wyeth.

Executed in May 2004, the Seventh Amendment to the Settlement Agreement will create a new claims processing structure and payment schedule for Matrix Level I or II claims, the least serious but most numerous claims in the Settlement, noted Wyeth. This Amendment includes the following key terms: