Dr. David Egilman, a physician and expert witness who, over 35 years, testified in nearly 600 corporate malpractice trials that resulted in billion-dollar awards for victims and their survivors, died April 2 at his home in Foxborough, Mass. He was 71 years old.
The cause was cardiac arrest, his son Alex said.
Many medical experts make side effects in court, offering their informed opinions on the witness stand and helping to validate or undermine plaintiffs’ claims. Few, however, make it a career passion, as Dr. Egilman did. He taught at Brown University and ran a private practice, but spent most of his time consulting and filing up to 15 cases a year.
He did more than opine from the stands. A hard-nosed investigator unearthed incriminating emails and memos showing that, in many cases, pharmaceutical companies knew the risks involved in bringing a new drug to market, but went ahead anyway.
She provided critical testimony in a class action lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, alleging that it had failed to disclose the health risks posed by Johnson’s baby powder and other products containing talc. “Although several settlements have been proposed in the lawsuit, including one for $8.9 billion in 2023, the litigation continues.
Dr. Egilman’s work as an expert rubbed some people the wrong way, especially defense lawyers and pharmaceutical company executives, who argued that he was too dogmatic to provide objective analysis. But Dr. Egilman saw things differently.
“As a doctor, I can cure one cancer patient at a time,” he said during a 2018 trial. “But by being here, I have the potential to save millions.”
His work extended beyond the courtroom: He helped legal teams strategize their cases and coached them on how to present complex medical data to juries.
“David changed the game on so many levels,” said Mark Lanier, an attorney who worked with Dr. Egilman for 25 years. “David helped me in cases where he testified, but also where he just gave advice and insight.”
He also pushed back against what he saw as pharmaceutical marketing’s intrusion into the realm of scientific research. Writing in peer-reviewed medical journals, he showed how drug companies used tactics such as ghostwriting — producing their own studies, then paying a doctor to add their name — and “seeding,” in which companies conduct their own questionable studies. to build support for their drugs.
Dr. Egilman was instrumental in releasing a declassified memo from 1950 that warned of the dangers of government radiation testing on humans. However, the tests were done.
“If this were to be done in humans, I think those concerned at the Atomic Energy Commission would be subject to considerable criticism, as it would admittedly have a bit of a Buchenwald feel to it.” Dr. Joseph G. Hamiltona professor at the University of California at Berkeley wrote in the memo, referring to the Buchenwald concentration camp where Nazi doctors performed horrific medical experiments on prisoners.
The The US government apologized for the radiation tests in 1996.
At times, Dr. Egilman’s zeal got the better of him. In 2007, he agreed to pay drugmaker Eli Lilly $100,000 after leaking confidential documents to a lawyer, who then gave them to the New York Times. He was embroiled in a case against the company over allegations that it had pushed its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for off-label uses.
Eli Lilly donated the money from the settlement to charity. But the company’s victory was short-lived: In 2009, it pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to pay $1.4 billion — including a $515 million criminal fine; the largest ever in a healthcare case.
Dr. Egilman was undeterred by the ups and downs of the case.
“A doctor’s oath,” he told Science magazine in 2019, “never says to keep your mouth shut.”
David Steven Egilman was born on September 9, 1952 in Boston. His father, Felix, was a Polish Jew who had survived the Holocaust, including a period spent in Buchenwald, because, he said, his skill as a shoemaker was appreciated by German officers. His wife and two children were killed in another concentration camp.
After the war, Felix Egilman immigrated to the United States, where he married Veta Albert, David’s mother, who died in a car accident when David was 10 years old. His father withdrew emotionally in the face of mounting trauma, leaving David largely to fend for himself.
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 in 1982.
Dr. Egilman married Helene Blomquist in 1988. Along with their son Alex, they survive him, as does 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 US Public Health Service. Many of his patients were industrial and mining workers who had developed medical conditions after years of working in unsafe environments.
The experience steeled Dr. Egilman’s resolve to stand up against medical injustice. He returned to Massachusetts in 1985, where he opened a private practice and began teaching at Brown.
To handle his growing list of legitimate clients, he created a separate company, Never Again Consulting, a nod to both his father’s experience during the Holocaust and the importance of not allowing the horrors of the Nazis to be reproduced medical experimentation.