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'Fat Chance': Book Revisits Fen-Phen Trials, Downfall Of Local Lawyers

Fat Chance cov

The new book Fat Chance revisits the wild legal trials and tribulations of diet drug fen-phen and the downfall of some of Cincinnati and Kentucky's most powerful legal voices.

Fen-phen and Redux were once successfully marketed diet drugs until researchers connected them to heart valve disease.

Prominent attorneys from Cincinnati and Lexington saw an opportunity and filed a class action lawsuit against the drugs' maker, Covington-based American Home Products.

But after the attorneys, including Cincinnati's Stan Chesley, scored a $200 million verdict for 431 plaintiffs, they soon found themselves on the other side of the courtroom.

The wild story is revisited in the new book Fat Chance: Diet Mania, Greed, and the Infamous Fen-Phen Swindle by author Rick Christman, who joins Cincinnati Edition to talk about it.

Listen to Cincinnati Edition live at noon M-F. Audio for this segment will be uploaded after 4 p.m. ET.

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Michael Monks brings a broad range of experience to WVXU-FM as the host of Cincinnati Edition, Cincinnati Public Radio's weekday news and information talk show.