American Home Products Corp

The maker of the Norplant contraceptive urged women implanted with certain kits since last October to use another method of birth control while the company continues evaluating whether the kits work. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, a unit of American Home Products Corp., said it would cover the cost of backup birth control and would reimburse women who wish to have suspect implants removed. The warning concerns about 22,000 contraceptive kits distributed beginning Oct. 20, 1999.

Plaintiffs in four Los Angeles County fen-phen diet-drug lawsuits that were to begin separate trials Monday have reached out-of-court settlements with drug maker American Home Products Corp., an attorney for other plaintiffs told Reuters. Paul Rheingold, a New York attorney representing hundreds of former fen-phen users, said he had been informed by authoritative sources that American Home had settled the four cases for undisclosed terms.

American Home Products Corp. faces trial in a bid by symptom-free users of the fen-phen diet drug combination to force the U.S.'s fifth-largest drug maker to pay to monitor their health. Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in a New Jersey state court in a consumer class-action suit accusing AHP of hiding the health risks associated with fen-phen. It's the first case to go to trial seeking to saddle American Home with the tab for monitoring the hearts and lungs of fen-phen users.

William Laporte, 88, former chairman and president of American Home Products Corp., died Sept. 10 at his home in New York City. Under Laporte's leadership, the company advertised aggressively on television and became one of the largest producers of pharmaceuticals and household chemicals in the world. Products such as Anacin and Preparation H became household names.

The parents of a young woman who died after using the popular diet drug cocktail fen-phen to lose a few pounds for her wedding have settled a civil lawsuit against American Home Products Corp., the two sides said. Although no dollar amount of the settlement was given, "a substantial portion thereof" will be used by the parents of the dead woman, Mary Linnen, to establish a foundation in her memory for the study of primary pulmonary hypertension, according to a joint statement by the parties.

PharmaPrint Inc., an Irvine maker of dietary supplements, said Wednesday that it has reached a settlement over pending lawsuits with a New Jersey company that once was its only major customer. Terms of the settlement with American Home Products Corp. were kept secret. Claims and counterclaims will be dismissed. As a result of the settlement, both parties will continue to produce their separate dietary supplements.