Mary Linnen, 29, was determined to lose 25 pounds before her wedding. In May 1996, her doctor prescribed a combination of drugs known as Fen-Phen. When Linnen complained of dizziness and shortness of breath 23 days after starting the medications, her doctor told her to stop the drugs--but didn't examine her or order tests. Linnen got better for a time, then the shortness of breath and exhaustion returned worse than ever. Her legs and stomach swelled. She collapsed at work. Six months after taking Fen-Phen, Linnen was admitted to the emergency room with primary pulmonary hypertension: the capillaries that sent oxygen to her lungs had thickened and were closing, suffocating her. Her survival expectation after heart surgery was less than four years. Hooked up to a tube in her chest to prevent heart failure, she died three months later. Dispensing with the Truth: The Battle over Fen-Phen tells the story of the legal battle against the pharmaceutical companies after Fen-Phen's users started dying--some, like Linnen, of primary pulmonary hypertension; others of heart valve damage. Investigative reporter Alicia Mundy weaves a dramatic tale from the development of the drugs to FDA approval to the final litigation. How much did the pharmaceutical companies know about the risks long before most of the deaths? Plenty, according to the evidence Mundy reveals. Although at times the book seems overfilled with details that slow down the drama, if you want the complete, behind-the-scenes story of one of the most famous "profits over protection" cases, this book tells all. --Joan Price
Review
"In the tradition of A Civil Action and In Cold Blood, this important and timely book reads like a riveting murder mystery . . . Alicia Mundy's book shines an overdue and informing spotlight on the immense, and not always well-used, power of national pharmaceutical corporations . . . over FDA regulators, over elected officials, and over the consuming public. Readers will leave Dispensing with the Truth's final pages armed with new insights—and heightened concerns—regarding the safety of the pharmaceuticals they consume. This is a significant and utterly engaging work of legal journalism at its best. It is also reminds us that lawyers can sometimes be heroes. And it makes me personally proud that some of the heroes in these pages are former students of mine."—Alan M. Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
"[A] sad, infuriating and important tale . . . [Mundy's] mastery of the massive scandal's legal, political and regulatory issues is impressive, her documentation comprehensive. [S]he has produced an exemplary piece of reportage on an appalling and utterly needless catastrophe."—The Washington Post
"A great investigative reporter tells the story of how corporate greed and government incompetence combined to let a killer loose—and what happened when the truth closed in."—Sam Donaldson, Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts
"Absorbing . . . a read that will have you gritting your teeth."—Time
"The subject of this fascinating book is the first wrongful death suit brought against a diet drug, Fen-Phen, an event that Mundy sets in the context of drug companies' greed, publicity spinning, and power over the Food and Drug Administration. Mundy comprehensively and often grippingly details the plaintiffs' attorneys' search for facts, which ultimately accumulated millions of documents; their many depositions; their work on determining trial procedures; their practicing before mock courts that included 'jurors' selected to give feedback; and then the trial itself. "—William Beatty, Booklist
"[Mundy] admirably recounts the fen-phen fiasco of the late 1990s . . . [She] has crafted a compelling morality tale out of this huge medical and regulatory disaster."—Elle
"Dispensing with the Truth has Hollywood movie written all over it . . . Think Erin Brockovich or A Civil Action—a courtroom drama pitting presumably powerless human beings against greedy corporations."—Salon.com
"[A] medical thriller that profiles unsuspecting victims while indicting the Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical giant Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories."—New York Daily News
"As Capitol Hill thrashes out the limits of a patient's right to sue health care providers, all involved should make Mundy's [book] a frequently consulted reference . . . [The book] chronicles, with passion and precision, the sequence of events that led to the Fen-Phen weight-loss drug disaster that left thousands of women dead or crippled by heart disease."—The National Journal
"Mundy's scorched-earth reporting and high-energy writing build a story that leave A Civil Action in the dust."—Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe
"Mundy's book reads like a medical thriller . . . A readable and moving narrative."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Investigative reporting at its best . . . will keep readers on the edge of their seats."—Arizona Daily Star
"This true-to-life courtroom drama reads like an edge-of-the-seat novel. It tops A Civil Action."—Barry Reed, bestselling author of The Verdict and The Deception
"Dispensing with the Truth has a huge, gratifying asset: it is so readable a story, told with such zest and saucy verve, that once you start reading, you'll be hard-pressed to stop. Remember, I warned you!"—Jack Valenti, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association
About the Author
Alicia Mundy is the Washington Bureau Chief for Mediaweek and a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine. Her feature stories have appeared in US News and World Report, GQ, Philadelphia Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Mundy is the winner of several journalism awards for commentary and investigative reporting. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
