Fen-Phen is Dead, But Phentermine Lives On

Washington, DCAlthough the combination Fen-Phen has long been banned in this country by the US Food and Drug Administration, primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) is still serving to haunt those who used the Fen-Phen drug long after they stopped taking it. PPH and Fen-Phen has resulted in many a Fen-Phen lawsuit.

What many people may not realize is that while Fen-Phen pills are no longer available, one-half of that formula is still around.

Fen-Phen was the combination of two popular appetite suppressants: fenfluramine and phentermine hydrochloride. The combination helped severely obese people to effectively lose weight. However, the combination was also found to effectively help them into the hospital with heart valve disease, the lay term for PPH. Following several reported cases of PPH among Fen-Phen users, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered fenfluramine and dexfenluramine off the market.

Fen-Phen was dead. However the 'Phen' in the Fen-Phen cocktail was allowed to remain.

Phentermine first received approval from the FDA in 1959 and first became available as an appetite suppressant in the early 1970s. And while it is still available from various sources, there have been virtually no clinical studies performed on the substance save for 1990, when the combination of Fenfluramine and Phentermine were combined into Fen-Phen. The latter was banned 7 years later after the Mayo Clinic, according to the website Phentermine.com, determined that 24 people who developed heart valve disease has used the Fen-Phen cocktail.

Phentermine.com is a website that promotes phentermine as a diet pill, claiming that phentermine is the most commonly prescribed prescription appetite suppressant, accounting for 50 percent of prescriptions.

However phentermine hydrochloride, while still approved in the US, is classified as a controlled substance and can be sold legally in the US only by prescription. However, according to Phentermine.com the drug CAN be purchased online without a prescription and actually includes links to sites that advertise sales of a drug that is assumed to be phentermine. However the spelling is slightly off: 'Phentirimine.'

At www.labq2.com 'phentirimine' carries a boxed text message that says, "Phentirimine is a non-controlled substance making it legal to purchase over the Internet without a prescription."

Whatever 'phentirimine' is, it is not Fen-Phen. But while phentermine is still available in the US, it is ONLY available legally by prescription, so buyer beware. Meanwhile there are still those who suffer from Fen-Phen side effects from the former Fen-Phen diet pill, and the Fen-Phen lawsuit retains a presence in the courts of law.