Dr. David Egilman, a physician and expert witness who has testified in nearly 600 corporate fraud cases over 35 years and won billions of dollars in compensation for victims and their survivors, is… He died on April 2nd at his home in New York. Foxboro, Mass. He was 71 years old.
His son Alex said the cause was cardiac arrest.
Many medical professionals have side jobs in court, giving informed opinions on the stand and helping plaintiffs justify or defeat their claims. But few people pursue a lifelong passion like Dr. Egilman. He taught at Brown University and ran a private practice, but spent most of his time consulting and testifying in as many as 15 cases a year.
He didn't just voice his opinions from the stands. A tenacious researcher, he unearthed incriminating emails and memos showing that, in many cases, drug companies were aware of the risks associated with launching new drugs and yet canceled them.
He provided critical testimony in a class action lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, alleging that the company failed to disclose the health risks associated with its baby powder and other products containing talc. “Several settlements have been proposed in this case, including an $8.9 billion settlement in 2023, but the case continues.
Dr. Egilman's work as an expert witness has offended some people, particularly defense attorneys and pharmaceutical company executives, who argue that he is too opinionated to provide an objective analysis. But Dr. Egilman saw things differently.
“As a doctor, I can treat one cancer patient at a time,” he said during the 2018 trial. “But by being here, we could potentially save millions of dollars.”
His work extended beyond the courtroom. He helped defense teams develop litigation strategies and coached them on how to present complex medical data to jurors.
“David was a game changer on so many levels,” said Mark Lanier, an attorney who worked with Dr. Egilman for 25 years. “David has helped me not only when testifying, but also when simply giving advice and insight.”
He also pushed back against what he saw as pharmaceutical marketing's encroachment into the realm of scientific research. He wrote in a peer-reviewed medical journal that showed how drug companies use tactics such as ghostwriting (creating their own research and paying doctors to put their names on it). . their medicine.
Dr. Egilman was instrumental in the publication of a declassified 1950 memo that warned of the risks associated with government radiation testing of humans. Nevertheless, the test was performed.
“If this were to be done to humans, Atomic Energy Commission officials would be exposed to considerable criticism. Certainly, there would be a bit of a Buchenwald vibe to this,” said Professor Joseph G. Dr. Hamilton said. In his memo, the UC Berkeley professor referred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where Nazi doctors conducted gruesome medical experiments on prisoners.
The U.S. government apologized for the 1996 radiation test.
There were times when I was overcome by Dr. Egilman's enthusiasm. In 2007, he agreed to pay pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly $100,000 after leaking confidential documents to his lawyer, who passed them on to the New York Times. He was involved in a lawsuit against the company for allegedly promoting unapproved uses of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa.
Eli Lilly donated the settlement proceeds to charity. However, the company's victory was short-lived, as in 2009 the company pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to pay $1.4 billion, including a $515 million criminal fine, the largest ever in a medical case.
Dr. Egilman was unfazed by the ups and downs of the case.
“A doctor's oath never says to shut up,” he told Science magazine in 2019.
David Steven Egilman was born on September 9, 1952 in Boston. His father, Felix, was a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust, including his time in Buchenwald. His skills as a shoemaker were highly valued by German military officers. His wife and two children were murdered in another concentration camp.
After the war, Felix Egilman immigrated to the United States, where he married David's mother, Betta Albert. Albert died in a car accident when David was 10 years old. His father became mentally withdrawn in the face of increasing trauma and was left primarily to care for David. His own.
He won a scholarship to Brown University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in molecular biology in 1974 and a medical degree in 1978. He earned a master's degree in public health from Harvard University in 1982.
Dr. Egilman married Helen Blomquist in 1988. She is survived by her son Alex, as is another son, Samson.
After medical school and training at the National Institutes of Health, he moved to Cincinnati, where he established a clinic as part of the U.S. Public Health Service. Many of his patients were industrial workers and miners who developed the condition after years of working in hazardous environments.
This experience strengthened Dr. Egilman's determination to fight against medical fraud. He returned to Massachusetts in his 1985, where he opened a private practice and began teaching at Brown University.
To handle his growing list of legal clients, he formed a separate company, Never Again Consulting. This pays homage to both his father's experiences during the Holocaust and the importance of not repeating the horrors of Nazi medical experimentation.