Beaumont, Texas resident Cynthia Cappel Coffey, took the diet drug combination Fen-Phen to lose weight for an eight-month period between November 1996 and July 1997. The FDA ordered the drug off the market that same year. In 2003 Coffey died from Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH), a deadly heart and lung disease rarely seen outside of Fen-Phen use. Leaving behind a husband and three young daughters, her family sued the drug behemoth Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories for marketing and selling a drug the company knew was harmful.

New evidence in this case, including a high-level Wyeth memo detailing the company's plan to ignore FDA warnings about the dangers of these drugs, especially if used longer than 90 days, convinced the jury of Wyeth's illegal activities.

"When given the facts in this case, this jury showed pure outrage. No amount of money will ever bring Mrs. Coffey back to her family, but this verdict sends a message to Wyeth that it is unconscionable to put corporate profits over the health of their patients," said Ed Blizzard, a Houston attorney with Blizzard, McCarthy & Nabers and a Fen-Phen legal expert with Majority Counsel.

"There are thousands and thousands of cases of PPH and serious valvular heart damage still awaiting trial. Wyeth should expect to see this similar verdicts again and again, all across the country," said Blizzard

Prominent Houston attorney George Fleming of Fleming and Associates reiterates this thought, "My office has over 100 cases similar to this one, and we anticipate that many of these will be filed by the end of this year."