Word: diets
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Question: who's to blame for letting the public gobble up potentially deadly diet pills like so much popcorn? Choose from among the following: 1. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which brushed off scientists' misgivings to approve the pills last year. 2. The drug companies that produced, tested and zealously promoted the pills. 3. The doctors and diet clinics that eagerly dispensed them, even to patients for whom they were never intended. 4. Uncritical media that ballyhooed the pills as "miracle" drugs and "magic bullets" in the war against fat. 5. A fanatically weight-conscious public so eager...
...finger pointing that followed last week's abrupt withdrawal of two of the country's favorite diet pills looked like a multiple-choice law-school torts exam, the similarity was hardly coincidental. Even before the FDA urged the recall of Redux (dexfenfluramine)--and Pondimin (fenfluramine), the front half of the fat-pill combo known as fen/phen--scores of lawyers across the nation had already started filing lawsuits. After the recall, the legal assault turned into a stampede. "Everyone saw money," says Jacoby & Meyers' Gail Koff...
Some attorneys even took out newspaper ads desperately seeking any individuals who felt they had been hurt by the capsules. New York lawyer Paul Rheingold, author of four suits so far, describes the diet-pill debacle as such "easy" pickings that he expects "many thousands of lawsuits scattered all around the country." Eventually, say some analysts, the Redux-fenfluramine recall could grow into one of the biggest medical-liability cases in history, perhaps exceeding the anticipated $2.4 billion from silicone breast implants...
...diet-drug revolution is facing a backlash. Some of the nation's largest HMOs, including Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Prudential Healthcare, have begun cutting back or eliminating reimbursement for both pills. Diet chains like Jenny Craig and Nutri/System are backing away from them too. Several states, meanwhile, have restricted the use of fen-phen. Last week the Florida legislature banned new prescriptions entirely and called on doctors to wean current patients from the drug within 30 days; it also put a 90-day limit on Redux prescriptions. Even New Jersey doctor Sheldon Levine, who touted Redux last year...
...appurtenances of wealth are well known--the Range Rovers and Rolexes, the little Chanel purses and the personal chefs trained in the Pritikin diet. But in the horse country around Warrenton, Va., a lustrous green pocket one hour from Washington where the Mellons and Kennedys have homes, the wealthy have a little-known luxury. It's the imported Argentine polo player, a man who can do a lot for your game--and if you happen to be one of the available local horsewomen, escort you home afterward...