Bayer AG, Germany's biggest drugmaker, will face a lawsuit over the Baycol cholesterol- lowering medicine it pulled last week because of links to at least 52 deaths, with more suits on the way.

The Chicago law firm of Kenneth B. Moll & Associates Ltd. is planning to file a suit later this week on behalf of the estimated 6 million patients worldwide who were prescribed Baycol, the firm said.

The potential class-action suit will seek a fund to help cover the costs of monitoring side effects from the drug, which has been linked to 480 cases of a muscle-weakening condition, said Hal Kleinman, an attorney with Moll's firm. The suit, which will be filed in state court in Chicago, will also ask for unspecified punitive damages from Bayer.

``They should have done more extensive testing before it was on the market,'' Kleinman said.

Other U.S. lawyers are already preparing suits against Bayer, darkening the prospects for a company whose shares lost a fifth of their value last week after it announced the Baycol withdrawal.

Ellena Friedman, a spokeswoman for Bayer, said the company does not comment on matters concerning litigation.

Bayer Chief Executive Manfred Schneider said earlier that the company expects to prevail because it warned patients about the drug's possible side effects.

`Pandora's Box'

Schneider is probably too optimistic, according to analysts and plaintiffs' lawyers. U.S. rival American Home Products Corp., for instance, has reserved $12.2 billion to cover the costs of litigation related to its withdrawn diet drugs used in the fen- phen combination.

``Something like that is a Pandora's box,'' said Jon Fisher, an analyst at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. Claims get ``into the courts and who knows?''

Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer, which invented aspirin more than 100 years ago, has cut its 2001 profit targets three times this year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week said that it knew of 31 U.S. deaths related to Baycol. In 12 of the cases, patients were also taking a separate medicine known as gemfibrozil. Bayer has warned against the mixture since 1997.

``The risk is far greater than they ever warned about,'' said Stephen Sheller, a Philadelphia attorney investigating these complaints. He said he's received 20 to 30 calls from potential clients and ``more than likely'' will file some lawsuits.

Bayer decided to pull the drug in all markets except Japan, where gemfibrozil isn't available. Baycol has been linked to a condition known as rhabdomyolysis, a weakening of the muscles that can lead to organ failure.

The medicine was the fastest-growing of Bayer's top-selling drugs, and analysts once estimated that its peak yearly revenue would top $1 billion. The company also sells the antibiotic Cipro and the blood-pressure medicine Adalat, which both had sales of more than 1 billion euros ($898 million) last year.

`Smoking Gun'

Some analysts said Bayer may be fine as long as the number of Baycol-related deaths doesn't increase.

``It looks like Bayer took action as soon as they knew there might be a problem,'' said Alex Zisson, an analyst at J.P. Morgan. ``If it turns out that there was some sort of smoking gun -- and Bayer was trying to cover it up -- then trial lawyers will jump on that.''

Analysts said they can't be sure how the potential liability will add up for Bayer. Still, they point to the cautionary tales of American Home and Sulzer Medica AG, Europe's biggest orthopedics company, which misjudged its liability over defective hip implants recalled in the U.S.