Wyeth’s latest attempt to settle tens of thousands of fen-phen lawsuits appears to have suffered the same fate as those that came before--failure. The Madison, N.J.-based drug maker announced a new program Jan. 18 designed to entice some 60,000 people who opted out of an earlier class-action settlement to drop their claims in exchange for guaranteed payments of $5,250 to $300,000. But lawyers holding the largest inventories of cases appear to be ignoring the offer, which requires them to sign up all their clients or none at all. The deadline for accepting the revised settlement was Tuesday. Houston lawyer George Fleming with Fleming & Associates, who represents 8,000 opt-out clients, estimated that two-thirds of some 60,000 opt-outs rejected the offer.
