http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/02/03/trial_lawyers_turning_to_fda_experts/
A former Food and Drug Administration staffer who specialized in antidepressant drugs is expected to take the stand this week as a defense witness in a double-murder case that the youth's attorneys blame on Zoloft. The testimony reflects a trend: the increased use of FDA expertise by trial lawyers.
"That's very powerful evidence, particularly more powerful when you have an FDA insider that's now not with the agency anymore who can testify freely," said Andy Vickery, one of four defense attorneys in the Pittman case.
Lutwak expects the list of troubled drugs to grow.
"The whole problem has reached the critical level in the last 10 years. There have been a tremendous number of medications that have been introduced that were either unnecessary or unsafe, but they were blockbuster," said Lutwak, who is retired. "We're dependent on what the drug company tells us: the patients, the physicians, the FDA. If the drug company doesn't pass on the information, and doesn't act -- and there are no laws that allow the FDA to force the drug company to do it -- they can sit on this information for years."
