Wyeth, which set aside more than $16 billion to resolve diet-drug lawsuits, reached a confidential settlement with a Texas woman over the fen-phen drug combination minutes before a jury ruled in the company's favor.

Wyeth settled today after a Philadelphia jury reached its verdict and about 10 minutes before the decision was read in state court. Jurors deliberated roughly an hour before rejecting Vinessa Archer's claims that Wyeth's Pondimin drug scarred her heart valves. The verdict was voided because of the settlement.

``Wyeth is in almost every one of these cases prepared to make reasonable and modest settlement offers,'' Wyeth lawyer Mike Scott said. ``We can't control when plaintiffs see the light and take the offer.''

The jury in Archer's case was the sixth in Philadelphia in the past three months to consider heart-valve claims against Wyeth's now-withdrawn diet drugs. Juries rejected claims by six former users while awarding a total of $102,000 to seven other women who once used the appetite suppressant. Wyeth has set aside $16.6 billion so far to resolve diet-drug lawsuits.

``This is closure for both sides,'' said Archer's attorney Rick Nemeroff. ``No one is ever exactly thrilled. What we wanted from the jury was education more than result.''

Wyeth has settled two other cases in the past week, one in Philadelphia and another in St. Louis. Terms of the settlements weren't disclosed.

The Philadelphia cases all involve consumers who chose not to be part of the company's $3.75 billion class-action settlement of fen-phen claims. Because they opted out of the settlement program, the former fen-phen users can't seek punitive damages for heart ailments allegedly caused by the diet drugs.

50,000 Users

More than 50,000 former fen-phen users have sued Wyeth individually rather than join the nationwide settlement, the company said in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August.

Doctors wrote more than 6 million prescriptions for the diet pill combination, which included Wyeth's Pondimin or Redux drugs and the generic phentermine, before the products were pulled from the market in 1997.

``I sure hope people will continue to fight this,'' Archer, a 43-year-old seventh-grade teacher, said after the jury read its verdict. Nemeroff said Archer took the diet drug for 12 months before doctors discovered the heart ailment.