Weiser & Associates has entered into a joint venture agreement with George Fleming & Associates – a law firm in Houston, Texas – to represent individuals who sustained personal injury as a result of taking the popular diet drug, Fen-Phen.

Fen-Phen is the common name for the combination of the drugs Pondimin and Redux. The manufacturer, American Home Products, marketed the drug as a cure for being overweight. Fen-Phen acts to change the level of serotonin in the brain, thus helping to block the impulses that tell us we are hungry. However, by affecting the serotonin level in the brain, the drug causes damage to the aortic and mitral valves in the heart, causing blood to regurgitate into the ventricle and left atrium. The drug was removed from the U.S. market when the Mayo Clinic released a study in 1997 stating that Fen-Phen caused serious heart valve disease.

The study also documented cases of the drug causing primary pulmonary hypertension, which is a fatally progressive narrowing of the blood vessels of the lungs. George Fleming & Associates has tried and settled numerous Fen-Phen cases in a number of states and has obtained multimillion-dollar verdicts for its clients. Mr. Fleming and Mr. Weiser believe that many people who took the drug are not aware of its potentially dangerous effects and may not have yet taken an echocardiogram to determine if they have any heart valve damage. If you or someone you know has taken Fen-Phen and can document it, call the Fen-Phen Attorneys of Weiser & Associates at 212-213-3111 for a free consultation.