Lawsuit calls fenphen a medical `flimflam'

LOS ANGELES (AP) A federal lawsuit filed Friday accuses the makers of
``fenphen'' 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 and programs publicizing dangers of fenphen.

``While purporting to promote weight loss, the latest pharmaceutical diet
fad, fenphen is a drug cocktail and increases the risk of, and causes,
lifethreatening pulmonary and cardiac injuries,'' the lawsuit said.

The suit follows studies linking the drug to heartvalve defects.

In July, the Food and Drug Administration cautioned physicians that Mayo
Clinic studies linked the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine to
rare heartvalve defects. The valve damage was found in 80 fenphen
patients.

A 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article also warned that the risk of
primary pulmonary hypertension is increased by 30 percent in those who take
fenphen. The lawsuit contends that drug companies knew in advance about
that study, but did nothing to halt use of fenphen.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five California residents and a resident
of Hawaii. The suit, which seeks classaction status, names 11
pharmaceutical companies as defendants.

It is the latest in a number of actions filed against the companies.

Suits filed in Washington D.C. and San Francisco seek an order to the FDA
to block sales of fenphen and another weightloss drug, dexfenfluramine,
also known as Redux.

The state of Florida imposed an emergency ban on fenphen sales last week
pending the implementation of strict rules for use of the drugs.