USERS OF DIET PILL COMBINATION `FEN-PHEN' SUE 11 DRUG MAKERS.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A federal lawsuit filed Friday accuses the makers of ``fen-phen'' diet pills of subjecting consumers to the risk of heart damage. The suit, filed on behalf of five California residents and a Hawaiian woman, seeks monetary damages Monetary damages, in civil law, refers to compensation given to an injured party by a liable party. Monetary damages may be restitution, a penalty, or both. and programs publicizing dangers of fen-phen. ``While purporting to promote weight loss, the latest pharmaceutical diet fad, fen-phen, is a drug cocktail Noun 1. drug cocktail - a combination of protease inhibitors taken with reverse transcriptase inhibitors; used in treating AIDS and HIV HAART, highly active antiretroviral therapy and increases the risk of, and causes, life-threatening pulmonary and cardiac injuries,'' the lawsuit said. The suit follows studies linking the drug to heart valve defects. In July, the Food and Drug Administration cautioned physicians that Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic: see Mayo, Charles Horace. Mayo Clinic voluntary association of more than 500 physicians in Rochester, Minnesota. [Am. Hist.: EB, 11: 723] See : Medicine studies linked the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine phentermine /phen·ter·mine/ (fen´ter-men) a sympathomimetic amine related to amphetamine, used as an anorectic either as the hydrochloride salt or as the base complexed with an ion exchange resin. to rare heart valve defects. The valve damage was found in 80 fen-phen patients. class-action status, names 11 pharmaceutical companies as defendants. It is the latest in a number of actions filed against the companies. |
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