FAYETTE — Outside the Jefferson County Courthouse, Christmas lights have twinkled each night for the last two weeks. And upstairs in a small courtroom, 14 men and women have spent long evenings listening to evidence in a diet drug trial that could leave five Mississippi plaintiffs with millions of dollars.

By the time defense attorneys for drug maker American Home Products have rested their case, jury members will have to sort through what they have learned in weeks of evidence: witness testimony, videotaped depositions, charts, graphs and cartoon-like diagrams of the chambers of the heart.

The courtroom is crowded with lawyers, paralegals and observers — other attorneys, drug company representatives and plaintiffs in similar lawsuits.

Boxes of evidence and trial notes line the walls, and two large monitors are set up to show the jury videotaped testimony and computer-generated graphics.

It’s not the first case to bring high-powered lawyers and a potentially large verdict to Fayette, a town of under 2,000 people whose sales tax collections in August totaled just more than $7,000, a town in which the majority of its school children qualify for a free or reduced lunch.

For Jefferson County and even Natchez, the trial brings money in the form of hotel bills, rented office space and lawyers’ lunches and dinners.

For American Home Products, maker of over-the-counter medications like Advil and Robitussin, the trial turns national attention on a proposed $4.83 billion settlement in similar diet drug lawsuits.

And for plaintiffs like Claude Pickett of Natchez, the trial could give them a chance at restitution for the damage they claim AHP’s drugs caused their hearts and lungs.

Experts say the outcome of the case probably won’t drive up the cost of the over-the-counter drugs many people keep in their medicine cabinets, but it could have ramifications beyond Fayette and the five plaintiffs seated quietly each day in the courtroom.

The fen-phen craze

Brenda Hamm of Bay Springs said an advertisement in an issue of Ladies Home Journal caught her eye in 1995: a diet drug could help her lose weight.

&uot;I wanted to feel better about myself,&uot; Hamm, 47, testified this week.

So, she said, she went to a doctor for a prescription. That visit turned into four more visits to other doctors, each of whom prescribed either Redux, a dexfenfluramine, or Pondimin, a fenfluramine. Both were either made or marketed by American Home or its pharmaceutical division, Wyeth-Ayerst.

The drugs were often prescribed in combination with phentermines, which American Home does not make or market; the drug cocktail was called fen-phen and quickly became the latest craze among diet-conscious Americans.

Redux and Pondimin were taken off the market in 1997. Some studies have linked use of the drugs to a rare and often fatal lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and to valvular heart disease. Phentermines are still available.

Plaintiffs attorneys have claimed that American Home knew about the health risks associated with Pondimin but hid that knowledge from the FDA.

They have also argued that AHP hid the knowledge about the related drug Redux when trying to get FDA approval for the medication.

Attorneys for Pickett, Hamm and their fellow plaintiffs say the five suffer from pulmonary hypertension or valvular heart disease.

Dr. Lemuel Moy\u00E9, a general causation expert who has served on FDA advisory&160;panels in the area of heart medication, has testified for the plaintiffs that Redux and Pondimin did cause valvular heart disease and pulmonary hypertension.

&uot;There’s no doubt that these companies, American Home Products knew the dangers of these drugs, and they did not adequately inform any of us, either administrators, physicians or patients,&uot; Moy\u00E9 said this week.

Defense attorneys, however, have said the plaintiffs are not even sick.

Dr. Marcus Stoddard, a cardiologist testifying for the defense, said plaintiffs’ medical records indicate no abnormalities in lung pressure or heart valve leaks.

Even if the plaintiffs did have health problems, Stoddard testified, linking them to the diet drugs was a leap he could not make.

&uot;To just assume that diet drugs are a cause without looking at secondary causes just doesn’t make sense to me,&uot; Stoddard said.

And Stoddard also testified he could not say valvular heart disease was necessarily tied to use of the drugs.

Larger settlement at stake

If the Fayette case goes to a verdict, it will be only the second fen-phen trial to be decided by a jury.

A Texas woman was awarded more than $23 million in August by a jury who agreed with the claim that American Home’s diet drugs had caused heart-valve damage in the 36-year-old smoker.

Other cases have been settled out of court, with settlements reportedly ranging from $400,000 to $6 million.

But a larger settlement is also at stake. American Home has already set aside $4.83 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by people who say fen-phen damaged their health. American Home could scrap the deal if enough people drop out.

American Home has not admitted any wrongdoing in the settlement, and it has maintains the majority of people who took the drug — including the Mississippi plaintiffs — have not experienced health problems.

Other attorneys involved in similar litigation say they are advising their clients not to take part in the settlement, which has already gotten preliminary approval from a federal judge.

&uot;We’re going to opt out all our cases,&uot; said David Rheingold, a New York City attorney whose firm is handling about 175 fen-phen lawsuits. &uot;The money’s too little and it takes too much time to process.&uot;

According to Rheingold, the Texas woman who won $23 million from a jury in her lawsuit against American Home would have gotten $6,000 in the settlement.

&uot;I’m recommending to most of my clients that they not participate in the settlement,&uot; said Philadelphia lawyer Steve Sheller.

Sheller said he hopes the jury in the Mississippi case sends a message to the drug company.

&uot;If someone wasn’t doing this, there would be a lot more of these drugs on the market,&uot; Rheingold said. &uot;Attorneys are a watchdog for these problems.

&uot;A lot of companies rush things to the market. Sometimes there’s not enough testing.&uot;

Merger at stake

Rheingold doesn’t expect American Home to be put out of business by the Fayette case.

But rival drug company Warner-Lambert has already made a $67 billion bid to merge with American Home.

But that friendly merger could be in jeopardy if a sizeable verdict is granted in the Fayette trial. Another drug company, Pfizer, has made an $80 billion hostile takeover bid to acquire Warner-Lambert. And Pfizer has filed lawsuits to block Warner-Lambert’s union with American Home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.