Diet Drugs & Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) Lawsuit

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Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a serious medical condition characterized by high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries in the lungs. There is no cure for pulmonary arterial hypertension and treatments can only alleviate the symptoms of the condition. Individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension are a risk for potentially deadly complications, including sudden cardiac arrest and heart failure. Experts estimate that there are more than 100,000 individuals in the United States living with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Typical symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension include shortness of breath, fainting, dizziness, swelling in hand and feet, and fatigue. In many cases, pulmonary arterial hypertension remains asymptomatic for many years after the condition has begun. Physicians believe that it could take as many a ten years for symptoms to appear. Because the symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension are not very dramatic, they can be dismissed by the individuals experiencing them as feeling tired or being under the weather.

An association has been found between pulmonary arterial hypertension and diet drugs popular in the United States. These diet drugs include Fen Phen, Redux, and Pondimin, each of which were taken by millions of individuals while they were available for purchase. These medications were marketed aggressively to the American public as anti-obesity medications. Although initial clinical trials had indicated a possibility of adverse cardiovascular events, the conditions were not determined to be severe enough to restrict sales of the medications.

According to some sources, there were over 100 reports linking pulmonary arterial hypertension and diet drugs in Europe before these medications were approved in the United States. After the US Food and Drug Administration received numerous reports of pulmonary arterial hypertension cases associated with the use of these medications, they decided that further research was warranted. Subsequent studies found that people taking these diet drugs could be up to 43% more likely to develop serious cardiovascular problems, such as pulmonary arterial hypertension, heart valve damage, and heart disease.

After analyzing the data, the FDA decided that these diet drugs needed to be removed from the US market due to the greatly increased risk of developing pulmonary arterial hypertension or heart valve damage. Medical professional were urged to discuss the findings with any of their patients who had taken the diet medications and to regularly test those individuals for the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension, heart disease, and lung disease. The FDA has continued to receive accounts of pulmonary arterial hypertension linked to diet drugs and believe that cases will continue to appear for years to come.

The association between cases of pulmonary arterial hypertension and diet drugs has led to lawsuits being levied across the country against the manufacturers of these medications. The usage of these medications has led to serious, life-threatening complications in thousands of individuals in the United States. Because the symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension can mimic many other benign conditions, it is often undiagnosed until the condition causes a serious complication. Experts estimate that for every person that has been diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, there are 4 more that are unaware that they have the condition.

Do I have a Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Lawsuit?

The Defective Drug Litigation Group at our law firm is an experienced team of trial lawyers that focus exclusively on the representation of plaintiffs in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH) and Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) lawsuits. We are handling individual litigation nationwide and currently accepting new Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension cases in all 50 states.

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