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Article: Deal Lets American Home Products Avoid Damaging Diet-Pill Verdict.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- December 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Dec. 22--American Home Products Corp. late last night averted a potential disaster by having a $150 million verdict set aside, only hours after a Mississippi jury awarded the huge sum to five people who had taken the company's diet pills and claimed heart or lung damage.
Terms weren't disclosed, but the deal also called for the jury not to award up to $2 billion in punitive damages. In a brief statement, the Madison drug maker said it has now resolved "substantially" all of the diet-pill lawsuits in Mississippi.
The 11th-hour deal, which took place just as the jury was scheduled to announce punitive damages, allows American Home to avoid the collapse of ...