Primary Arterial Hypertension News - Menu 2 Fen-Phen defendants must serve prison time By Jimmie E. Gates
jgates@clarionledger.com May 9, 2005 - A judge today told two Fayette residents in the federal Fen-Phen fraud case that the money they took wasn't free and they have to pay it back through prison sentences. U.S. District Judge William Barbour jr. sentenced Cora Durrell, 62, to 18 months in prison and Samuel Johnson, 56, to 21 months in prison for their roles in submitting false claims in the $400 million Fen-Phen diet-drug settlement. "I expect both of you were expecting this sentencing this morning," U.S. District Judge William Barbour Jr. told Durrell and Johnson. "Others have been sentenced in a similar manner." Barbour told the two they are decent people, but that they put their hands out at the chance to get money they weren't entitled to. "But it wasn't free money," Barbour told them. Barbour ordered both to make restitution of $250,000 to the drug maker. Durrell and Johnson are among the 12 Fayette defendants charged last year in a joint FBI/IRS investigation in connection with the settlement from American Home Products, the maker of the diet drug. All were accused of receiving at least $250,000 each in settlement funds through false prescriptions, netting about $150,000 after attorneys' fees and expenses. All 12 have pleaded guilty to charges. When Barbour asked Johnson if he had anything to say before announcing his sentence, Johnson replied, "No, sir, your honor." When Durrell was given the opportunity to make a statement, she apologized to the judge for her actions. Durrell's attorney, Richard Smith of Vicksburg, told the judge his client is "a God-fearing woman who had led a stellar life. She has not been convicted of any other crime."
Durrell and Johnson must report to prison July 5.
Judge Postpones Second Phase of Diet Drug Trial Until July 25, 2005
MADISON, N.J., May 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) announced today that Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Paul P. Panepinto has postponed the second, liability phase of the bifurcated (two-phase) diet drug cases of Margie Paul v. Wyeth and Elaine Karician v. Wyeth until July 25, 2005. Earlier this week, the jury hearing the first phase of this trial returned a verdict finding that each of the two plaintiffs, who had claimed heart valve injury, had been damaged in the amount of $100 million. Wyeth has moved for a mistrial following the damages verdict and that motion will also be adjourned until July 25.
"We strongly disagree with the jury's conclusions. The damage awards are excessive and completely unsupported by the evidence and are inconsistent with other recent cases in Philadelphia with similar facts and circumstances," said Lawrence V. Stein, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Wyeth. "We are confident that this verdict will not stand." The jury returned the damages verdict on Tuesday, May 24 and the verdict was then sealed by the court.
The parties requested that consideration of the motion or the second phase of the trial be postponed until July 25 to permit Wyeth and attorneys from the Houston, Texas firms of Blizzard, McCarthy & Nabers and Williams Bailey, counsel for the plaintiffs, to pursue discussions of a possible resolution of all of those firms' diet drug cases. These discussions are taking place within the context of the settlement process that is currently underway with lawyers representing thousands of plaintiffs nationwide. Should the trial resume, the jury would be required to determine if Wyeth is liable and required to pay the damages found in the first phase of the trial.
To view a copy of the Wyeth mistrial motion, visit http://www.wyeth.com and click on the news & announcements icon.
Wyeth is one of the world's largest research-driven pharmaceutical and health care products companies. It is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotechnology products and nonprescription medicines that improve the quality of life for people worldwide. The Company's major divisions include Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare and Fort Dodge Animal Health.
SOURCE Wyeth
Web Site: http://www.wyeth.com
Safer Anti-obesity Drugs May Stem From New Insight Into How Serotonin Reduces Appetite
Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News
23 Jul 2006 - A study led by a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher sheds light on how the brain chemical serotonin, when spurred by diet drugs such as Fen-phen, works to curb appetite.
That knowledge could aid in the design of safer anti-obesity drugs nearly a decade after Fen-phen was banned for causing harmful side effects.
The study, which tested the effect of several drugs that alter serotonin levels in the brain, found that serotonin activates some neurons and melanocortin-4 receptors, or MC4Rs, to curb appetite and at the same time blocks other neurons that normally act to increase appetite.
The dual effect helps explain how such drugs, including Fen-phen, spur weight loss.
The finding, available online and in the July 20 issue of Neuron, also reinforces the role of serotonin - a regulator of emotions, mood and sleep - in affecting the brain's melanocortin system, a key molecular pathway that controls body weight.
"The more we understand about the pathways and the way serotonergic drugs regulate body weight, the more it one day might lead to harnessing beneficial properties of anti-obesity treatments like Fen-phen and minimizing the harmful side effects," said Dr. Joel Elmquist, professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and co-senior author of the study.
In the United States, about 66 percent of adults are obese or overweight, as are 16 percent of young people aged 6 to 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trend is significant because being overweight or obese increases the risk of harmful health consequences, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, non-alcoholic liver disease and death.
Drugs that enhance the brain's release of serotonin have helped people lose weight. Fen-phen, which paired fenfluramine with phentermine, had such success. The drug combination, however, also led some patients to develop cardiac complications, Dr. Elmquist said. The drug was removed from the market in 1997.
But the mechanisms of how it caused weight loss were never fully determined, he said.
So a few years ago, Dr. Elmquist and his research team set out to detail how fenfluramine affected the brain's molecular pathways to reduce appetite. In 2002, they examined the region of the brain's hypothalamus containing the arcuate nucleus, or ARC. In the ARC, drug-induced serotonin activates brain cells called pro-opiomelanocortin neurons, or POMC, which in turn release a hormone that acts on the MC4R to reduce appetite.
The team's new study shows how serotonin also simultaneously blocks other neurons, known as NPY/AgRP, from being able to inhibit activity of MC4Rs. By blocking this inhibitory activity, serotonin prevents an increase in appetite.
Researchers studied the effect of Fen-phen and other serotonin-inciting drugs on both normal and genetically engineered lean and obese mice. They found that serotonin's dual regulation of POMC and AgRP neurons is necessary to promote weight loss.
"The finding increases the understanding of the molecular circuitry that controls body weight in response to changing levels of serotonin," Dr. Elmquist said. "An overarching goal of this understanding, for humans, is to design specific, safe drugs to fight obesity."
Dr. Elmquist, who recently left Harvard Medical School, directs the newly formed Center for Hypothalamic Research at UT Southwestern. The center, along with the Taskforce for Obesity Research, a National Institutes of Health Interdisciplinary Research Center, is part of the institution's effort to investigate the causes of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
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Researchers from Harvard Medical School, University of Cambridge, Oregon Health and Science University, the Louisiana State University System, Yale School of Medicine, Sussex University, Rockefeller University, Shimane University School of Medicine in Japan and the University of Auckland in New Zealand also participated in the study.
The work was supported in part by the Boston Obesity Nutrition Center, American Diabetes Association, National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust and the ADA-EASD Transatlantic Fellowship.
Dr. Joel Elmquist
www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/professional/0,2356,80436,00.html
Contact: Cliff Despres
UT Southwestern Medical Center
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