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Fen Phen - In 1997 the FDA asked
American Home Products a the makers of Pondimin
(Fenfluramine) and Redux (Dexfenfluramine), to
withdraw it's popular anti-obessity drugs from the
market.American Home Products Corp. of Madison,
N.J., manufactured fenfluramine under the brand
name Pondimin and a American Home Product's
subsidiary Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, manufactured
Dexfenfluramine for Interneuron Pharmaceuticals,
which was marketed under the name of Redux.
Medical studies have linked Pondimin or Redux to
heart valve.
The FDA stated that in
findings from doctors who evaluated patients that
took Fenfluramine and Dexfenfluramine, with
echocardiograms, that approximately 30 percent of
patients who were evaluated had abnormal
echocardiograms, even though they had no symptoms.
This is a much higher than expected percentage of
abnormal test results.
Additionally a Mayo
Clinic study that was published in the New England
Journal of Medicine on August 28, 1997 suggested
that as high as one-third of a patient sampling of
Fen-Phen diet pill users had evidence of heart
valve disease. The study found that there was a
high incidence of heart valve disease in patients
taking these diet pills, without any other known
reason for valve disease.
In addition to
heart valve disease the use of fenfluramine and
dexfenfluramine has been found to increase the
risk of developing Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
or (PPH). PPH is a rare disease of that causes the
progressive narrowing of the blood vessels of the
lungs. Studies estimate that treatment with
certain appetite suppressant drugs tends to
increase the chances of developing PPH by
approximately 25 to 30 percent.
Existing Parker and Waichman Fen-Phen
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Redux 
