To the Editor:
If there are more settlements like the one American Home Products has agreed to in the fen-phen diet pill suit, the public will soon stop benefiting from drug innovation (front page, Oct. 8). Jury verdicts and forced settlements that have no basis in science may hurt consumers by creating a disincentive for companies to develop products.
A new study and editorial in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology confirm what previous peer-reviewed reports found: there was no increased risk of heart valve damage from using fen-phen.
It is time to create a science court that would relegate junk science suits to the scrap heap.