Associated Press, "Family Awarded $1 Billion in Diet Drug Case"

          A jury awarded $1 billion to the family of a woman who once took the Wyeth-made diet drug Pondimin, part of the now-banned weight-loss combination fen-phen. The New Jersey-based drug company said Tuesday it would appeal the jury's huge award, which included $900 million in punitive damages.
          Cynthia Cappel-Coffey, 41, died last year after being diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension, which her attorneys blamed on Pondimin, the brand name of fenfluramine.She took the drug for five months in 1997, according to her attorneys. Pondimin was pulled from the market in September 1997 because of side effects. Cappel-Coffey was diagnosed with hypertension in 2002 and died last year.
          American Home Products Corp., which later changed its name to Wyeth, made Pondimin, the fenfluramine half of fen-phen, and Redux, a chemical cousin. About 6 million people took the drugs before they were pulled from the market. Phentermine, the other drug in the combination, was not implicated in health problems. About 78,000 people have opted out of a $3.75 billion trust fund the company set up for injured fen-phen patients, and Wyeth has set aside $16.6 billion to cover payouts from the trust, verdicts, settlements and legal costs.