S&P: Wyeth unaffected

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday said that the recent announcement that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a previous ruling by a lower court that had limited the evidence that can be introduced in diet drug litigation cases does not have an impact on the current ratings and outlook on Wyeth (A/negative/A-1).

Wyeth is in the midst of settling claims of harmful effects from the use of the company's now-withdrawn diet drugs, Pondimin and Redux (fen-phen). The ruling applies to cases in which the plaintiffs had opted out of the national settlement, of which there are an estimated 50,000 lawsuits filed.

S&P said the reversal is a negative development in that, with the possibility of added evidence, plaintiffs can more easily prove their case against Wyeth.

However, S&P said it believes it is not possible at this time to estimate the impact to future litigation charges and related cash outflows. At the same time, the higher court did reaffirm that plaintiffs cannot seek punitive damages against Wyeth. Still, the reversal does raise the distinct possibility that future charges may be even larger than expected.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.