Council for Tobacco Research
Lisanti Affidavit in Butler
Fields
- Depository Date
- 12 Mar 1999
- Author
- Lisanti, V.F., Ctr
- Request
- Richardson-Lisanti
- Deposition
- Request
- Deposition
- Type
- PLEADING
- Box
- 288
- UCSF Legacy ID
- dma40a00
Document Images
1
REDACTED
COPY
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT
OF JONES COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
ESTATE OF EARL BUTLER, gi Civil Action No. 94-S-53
)
Plaintiffs, ) THIS VERSION IS SUBMITTED
) EX PARTE AND 2j CAMERA
v. ) BECAUSE IT CONTAINS
) PRIVILEGED MATERIAL. A
PHILIP MORRIS, INC., REDACTED VERSION IS
) BEING SERVED ON
Defendants. ) PLAINTIFFS.
)
AFFIDAVIT OF DR. VINCENT F. LISANTI
STATE OF NEW YORK )
) ss.:
COUNTY OF NEW YORK )
REDAC T ED
COPY
VINCENT F. LISANTI, having been duly sworn, hereby declares as
follows:
1. 1 was affiliated with The Council for Tobacco Research -- U.S.A.,
Inc. and The Council for Tobacco Research -- U.S.A. (together, "CTR") for 30 years,
from 1964 until 1994. I make this affidavit in response to plaintiffs' contention that
CTR participated in an alleged fraud.
Personal Backg or und
2. I was born in Rochester, New York on June 23, 1918, and I am 78
years old. I reside in New Jersey.

3. After attending the University of Rochester, I received a degree in
Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) from Tufts University in 1942. I served in the United
States Army from 1942 to 1946 and attained the rank of Captain. Following World
War II, I held a number of teaching positions in the fields of oral medicine and oral
cavity research. From 1954 to 1960, I was an Associate Professor of Dental Research
at Tufts University and taught Ph.D. candidates at Tufts as well as at Boston University
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("MIT"). Beginning in 1958 1 was a
Director and Member of the Institute of Somatological Research in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, which was a division of the Science Resources Foundation ("SRF") in
Brookline, Massachusetts, a granting and research foundation. I remained affiliated
with SRF until 1986. In addition, I have served as a research consultant to the Office
of Naval Research, Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, Aero-Medical Center
of the United States Air Force, the Veteran's Administration, and a number of other
pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions.
4. 1 have published accounts of my research in journals such as 31M
Archives of Oral Biology, The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Science,
The Journal of Bacteriology, Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and
Lancet. I have been a member of a number of professional organizations, including the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Association for
Dental Research, New York Academy of Sciences, American Society of Cell Biology
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and the Massachusetts Public Health Association. A copy of my curriculum vitae from
CTR's files is attached as Exhibit 1.
Affiliation with CTR
5. In about 1963, 1 was invited to apply for a job at CTR by Dr. Robert
Hockett, who was the Associate Scientific Director of CTR. I knew Dr. Hockett from
his work at the Sugar Research Foundation, where he had been employed before going
to CTR. I declined Dr. Hockett's invitation. In June 1964, Dr. Clarence Cook Little
called me, saying I had been recommended to him for a position at CTR by Dr. E.B.
Wilson, a member of CTR's Scientific Advisory Board ("SAB") of CTR.
6. I met with Dr. Little and was extremely impressed with him on a
personal and professional level. We discussed scientific research generally, including
the relative merits of directed contract research as compared to undirected grant
research. As described below, this was a frequently discussed topic at CTR through
much of my tenure there. After meeting again with Dr. Little, and talking to Dr.
Hockett, Mr. Tom Hoyt (a non-scientist administrator at CTR) and Mr. Timothy
Hartnett (a non-scientist who was the Chairman of CTR), I was offered a full-time
position. I declined the full-time position but accepted a part-time position in 1964.
No one told me, and I did not believe, that there was any requirement that I hold a
particular opinion about smoking and health in order to be hired by CTR.
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7. -Iri 1964, my title at CTR was Scientific Associate. My principal
function was to monitor the activities of some CTR grantees (and later contract
researchers) and report back to CTR as to how its grant-in-aid (and later contract) funds
were being spent. I was not concerned with the scientists' research findings, but rather
their qualifications, techniques, and procedures. It was not my function to interfere
with their research, and I made every effort not to do so.
8. My time commitment to CTR steadily increased over the years, until
I was working there virtually full-time in 1967. My title wass changed to Research
Associate in 1973. In 1975, I become a full-time employee of CTR and my title was
changed to Associate Research Director, which it remained until I retired in 1994.
9. Throughout the 30 years in which I was associated with CTR, its
principal function was to award research grants-in-aid to independent scientists around
the country and abroad. These awards were made after review and evaluation by the
SAB, whose meetings I usually attended. CTR itself did not conduct any scientific
research.
Structure of CTR
10. When I first came to work for CTR it was an unincorporated
association consisting of a committee of representatives of all the sponsor companies.
The sponsor companies were most of the major participants in the U.S. tobacco
industry. The chief executive officer of the association was the Chairman of the
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Council. From 1964 to 1969, the Chairman was Timothy Hartnett, formerly of the
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. The scientific work of CTR was run by the
Scientific Director, Dr. Little. Dr. Little's principal assistant was Dr. Hockett,
formerly with MIT and the Sugar Research Foundation, an industry research
organization.
11. In 1971, CTR changed from an unincorporated association to a non-
profit corporation. A Board of Directors (consisting of representatives of the sponsor
companies) was created, as well as a President and other corporate officers.
12. The Scientific Directors of CTR were distinguished scientists with
no affiliation to the tobacco industry other than their work at CTR. The Scientific
Directors whom I worked under were Dr. Clarence Cook Little (until 1971), Dr.
William Gardner (1973-1981), Dr. Sheldon C. Sommers (1981-1987), Dr. James F.
Glenn (1988-1991), and Dr. Harmon McAllister (1991). In addition, Dr. Hockett,
who was the Associate Scientific Director from 1955 to 1972, was Acting Scientific
Director from 1972 to 1973. Their curricula vitae are attached as Exhibit 2. Each of
the Scientific Directors considered it one of his principal duties to foster and preserve
the scientific integrity of the CTR.
13. 1 understand that Dr. McAllister and Dr. Glenn are submitting
affidavits to this Court. Dr. Little, CTR's first Scientific Director at the time I joined
CTR, was then one of the greatest living contributors to the science of cancer. He was
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a Fellow of the gational Academy of Sciences, founder of the Roscoe B. Jackson
Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and a former managing director of the
organization that became the American Cancer Society. The Scientific Director after
him, Dr. Gardner, had been a Professor at Yale University Medical School and was a
past President of the International Union Against Cancer. Dr. Sommers, a graduate of
Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, had been a Professor of Pathology at the
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of Laboratories
at Lenox Hill Hospital.
14. CTR also had the Scientific Advisory Board ("SAB"), an Executive
Committee of the SAB (consisting of several SAB members and the Scientific Director)
and an Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. To the best of my knowledge
CTR never had a "Committee of Counsel," a "Research Review Committee," an "Ad
Hoc Committee" or a "Research Liaison Committee."
15. CTR has no relationship with the Tobacco Institute other than, I
believe, an overlap in membership. To the best of my knowledge, the Tobacco
[nstitute's employees have not been involved in CTR's activities during my 30 years at
CTR.
The Scientific Advisory Board
16. During my affiliation with CTR, the SAB met at least twice, and
early on as many as four times, each year to review applications for research grants-in-
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aid. These applications were received from independent scientists who sought grants
from CTR. Each application was assigned to a subcommittee of two to four SAB
members with expertise in that scientific field (augmented by outside consultants where
necessary). Those members reviewed and prepared written critiques of the application.
These reviews were distributed to the full SAB, which would discuss each application
at its meetings. The SAB would decide which applications were approved or
disapproved for funding. Beginning in about 1973, each approved application was
given a score of 1 to 5 by each SAB member, and SAB members' scores for each
application were averaged to arrive at a composite score for the application. (In the
early 1990s, the SAB adopted a procedure whereby the SAB rated all acceptable
applications, but designated others as "non-rated" rather than "disapproved. ")
17. The final decision-making as to funding was entrusted to CTR's
Scientific Director, with the understanding that those decisions would adhere closely to
the SAB's evaluation. The Scientific Director reported his funding decisions to the
SAB at its next meeting. By reviewing and evaluating grant applications in this way,
the SAB functioned much like a peer review board of the National Institutes of Health,
the American Cancer Society or the American Heart Association. Once the amounts
approved by the SAB began to regularly exceed CTR's budget (in the early 1970's), the
Scientific Director was unable to fund all grants approved by the SAB. This is
reflected in the SAB minutes for March 14-16, 1973, paragraph 4(2) at page 4, a copy
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of which is attaclied as Exhibit 3. To the best of my knowledge, the Scientific Director
did not fund any grant or contract that had not been approved by the SAB.
18. I attended over 90 SAB meetings from 1964 to 1994. These
sessions were extremely educational. They were filled with lively and thoughtful
debates about the grant-in-aid applications and research contracts, as well as about
scientific issues generally. I also attended about 35 SAB Executive Committee
meetings.
19. In evaluating grant-in-aid applications, the SAB's primary
considerations were the scientific merit of the applications and their relevance to
smoking and health. In the 90-plus SAB meetings that I attended, I do not believe that
the SAB ever rejected a grant application because it proposed research the results of
which might be detrimental to the tobacco industry. The SAB members cared about
promoting science and making a contribution to scientific knowledge, not about the
potential impact of any scientific research on the interests of the tobacco companies.
20. SAB meetings were attended by SAB members and by the
administrative officers and scientific staff of CTR. Only the SAB members and the
Scientific Director ever voted on grant applications. On occasion, guest scientists were
present. Most SAB meetings were attended by a representative of the Industry
Technical Committee ("ITC"), which consisted of tobacco company scientists. The
sole function of the ITC with regard to CTR was to provide information to the SAB,
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upon request, about technical aspects of proposed research that related to cigarette
composition and tobacco smoke chemistry. No other industry representatives generally
attended SAB meetings.
21. Leonard Zahn, a consultant to CTR whose principal functions were
to attend and report on medical meetings and to prepare CTR's Annual Report and
press releases, also attended SAB meetings. Mr. Zahn had no influence over the
SAB's deliberations and evaluations.
22. One SAB meeting that I attended, in April 1978, was attended by
CTR's attorney, Edwin Jacob. Other than that, I do not ever recall a lawyer attending
an SAB meeting during my tenure. (During my affiliation with CTR, three officers of
CTR were lawyers: Henry Ramm, Addison Yeaman, and Robert Gertenbach. They
attended SAB meetings in their role as CTR officers.)
23. During my 30 years with CTR, I knew all but four of the 43
scientists who have served as SAB members during CTR's history. The names of all
43 and their affiliations are presented on the list of SAB members that is attached as
Exhibit 4. I never met Dr. Julius Comroe, and have not met Dr. Carlo M. Croce,
Dr. David Sabatini, or Dr. Hugh O' Neil McDevitt, because they did not serve during
my tenure at CTR. The SAB was an extremely impressive group of scientists. The
scientists on the SAB were prominent leaders in their fields, with a national or
international reputation.
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24. Four SAB members I knew were employees of the National Cancer
Institute ("NCI"), which is part of the federal government: Dr. Paul Kotin (an SAB
member from 1954 to 1965 who was with NCI beginning in about 1962), Dr. Harry
Andervont (an SAB member from 1964 to 1966 and from 1970 to 1974), Dr. Robert
Huebner (an SAB member from 1968 to 1981), and Dr. Peter Howley (an SAB
member from 1982 to 1986). Thus, for almost 24 years from 1962 to 1986, there was
an NCI employee on the SAB.
Independence of the SAB
25. The members of the SAB were scientists and persons of great
integrity. The SAB members were interested in helping to fund research that would
further scientific truth and contribute to scientific progress -- not in advancing the
interests of the tobacco companies. There was no uniformity of views about smoking
and health on the SAB. The members of the SAB felt strongly about their
independence from control by the tobacco companies. Any statement or suggestion that
the evaluations and recommendations of the SAB were controlled or influenced by the
tobacco companies is simply false.
26. I have reviewed a handwritten note, dated March 28, 1973, that
apparently was sent from Dr. Helmut Wakeham of Philip Morris to Dr. Hockett of
CTR. A copy of this note is attached as Exhibit 5. That note appears to contain Dr.
Wakeham's "rating" of CTR grant applications that were considered by the SAB during
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