NEW YORK, Dec. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientific testimony about the effects
of phentermine from two plaintiff's experts who have testified in dozens of
state and federal lawsuits over the harmful effects of two drugs, phentermine
and fenfluramine (phen/fen), has been thrown out for failing to meet standards
of scientific evidence in a Massachusetts Superior Court case.
    The two experts, Dr. Paul Wellman, a professor of psychology, chairman of
the Psychology Department and member of the Faculty of Neuroscience at Texas
A&M University, and Dr. Alan Woolf, a physician toxicologist and director of
the Massachusetts Poison Control Center, have testified on behalf of
plaintiffs in phen/fen cases before state courts and in the consolidated
Federal District Court action pending in Philadelphia.
    The memorandum of decision and order to exclude the experts' opinion
testimony came in the case Thomas F. Linnen and other vs. A.H. Robins Company,
Inc. and others, filed in the Superior Court of Middlesex County, and was
written by Raymond J. Brassard, Justice of the Superior Court.  Plaintiffs
Thomas and Mary Linnen allege that the 1996 death of their 30-year-old
daughter Mary Linnen from pulmonary hypertension was caused by short-term
ingestion of the two drugs, phentermine and fenfluramine.
    "Judge Brassard performed a detailed analysis of the testimony that Drs.
Wellman and Woolf presented and concluded that they presented 'no evidence ...
that these conclusions regarding an association between phentermine and
pulmonary hypertension are based on acceptable scientific methodology,'" said
David M. Cohen, a partner in the New York law firm of Richards & O'Neil, LLP.
    Cohen is one of the lawyers involved in the national litigation over
phen/fen and the Linnen vs. A.H. Robins case.  He deposed Dr. Wellman and
helped write the motion that was instrumental in the decision to throw out the
testimony.  Cohen also is involved with the Federal cases pending in
Philadelphia.
    "The Massachusetts court determined that Drs. Wellman and Woolf failed to
follow generally accepted scientific methodology for establishing whether
exposure causes a disease.  They relied on case reports, analogies to effects
by other drugs and animal studies that have not been verified scientifically
or have limited applicability to humans," Cohen said.
    Richards & O'Neil, based in New York, NY, is a law firm with a general
practice in e-commerce, entertainment and intellectual property, product
liability, business and finance, litigation, real estate, taxation, labor and
employment, bankruptcy, employee benefits, estate planning and administration
and international transactions.

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