Los Angeles Jury Awards $115,000 for Heart Valve Problems Linked to Pondimin

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles jury deliberated for two days before awarding $115,000 to a 56-year-old man who said he developed heart problems from taking Wyeth's Pondimin diet drug. Hines v. Wyeth, No. DD001645 (Calif. Super., Los Angeles Cty.).

Jurors were only asked to consider causation issues in the bifurcated trial. After trial, Wyeth reached an undisclosed agreement with plaintiff Larry Hines in which it conceded liability.

Hines' attorneys said it was the first verdict for a plaintiff in California's diet drug litigation. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Solis Pratt presides over another 3,000 cases, all of …