Dispensing with the Truth: The Victims, the Drug Companies, and the Dramatic Story Behind the Battle Over Fen-Phen Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Dispensing with the Truth: The Victims, the Drug Companies, and the Dramatic Story Behind the Battle Over Fen-Phen Book

Mary Linnen, 29, was determined to lose 25 pounds before her wedding. In May 1996, her doctor prescribed a combination of drugs known as Fen-Phen. When Linnen complained of dizziness and shortness of breath 23 days after starting the medications, her doctor told her to stop the drugs--but didn't examine her or order tests. Linnen got better for a time, then the shortness of breath and exhaustion returned worse than ever. Her legs and stomach swelled. She collapsed at work. Six months after taking Fen-Phen, Linnen was admitted to the emergency room with primary pulmonary hypertension: the capillaries that sent oxygen to her lungs had thickened and were closing, suffocating her. Her survival expectation after heart surgery was less than four years. Hooked up to a tube in her chest to prevent heart failure, she died three months later. Dispensing with the Truth: The Battle over Fen-Phen tells the story of the legal battle against the pharmaceutical companies after Fen-Phen's users started dying--some, like Linnen, of primary pulmonary hypertension; others of heart valve damage. Investigative reporter Alicia Mundy weaves a dramatic tale from the development of the drugs to FDA approval to the final litigation. How much did the pharmaceutical companies know about the risks long before most of the deaths? Plenty, according to the evidence Mundy reveals. Although at times the book seems overfilled with details that slow down the drama, if you want the complete, behind-the-scenes story of one of the most famous "profits over protection" cases, this book tells all. --Joan Price Read More

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  • Product Description

    In 1996, a terrible epidemic began.Thousands of women were stricken illand many of them died.Some died quickly, within a few months; others lasted a couple of years.Many of those who didnt die suffered damage to their hearts and lungs, much of it permanent.Doctors suspected what the killer was. So did the Food and Drug Administration.The culprit was one-half of the most popular diet drug combinations on the market, Fen-Phen. It was produced and sold by a powerful pharmaceutical company, Wyeth-Ayerst, a division of American Home Products. Dispensing with the Truth is the gripping story of what the drug company really knew about its drugs; the ways it kept this information from the public, doctors, and the FDA; and the massive legal battles that followed as victims and their attorneys searched for the truth behind the debacle. Only now can the full story of Fen-Phen be told. Drawing on three-and-a-half years of intensive research, Mundys work is a searchlight on the dark greed of major pharmaceutical firms; so much so, the book is now required reading at Harvard Law School.

  • 0312270712
  • 9780312270711
  • Alicia Mundy
  • 1 August 2002
  • St. Martin's Press
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 416
  • Reprint
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