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Products Liability Keyed to Fischer, 6th Ed.
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Citation:
509 U.S. 579 (1993)Facts
Jason Daubert and Eric Schuller were born with serious birth defects. They and their parents sued Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, alleging that the birth defects were caused by their mothers’ ingestion of Bendectin, a prescription anti-nausea drug marketed by the defendant. After extensive discovery, Merrell Dow moved for summary judgment, submitting an affidavit from Dr. Steven Lamm, who had reviewed more than 30 published studies involving over 130,000 patients, none of which found Bendectin to be a human teratogen. The plaintiffs responded with testimony from eight experts who concluded that Bendectin could cause birth defects, basing their opinions on in vitro and in vivo animal studies, chemical structure analyses, and reanalysis of previously published epidemiological studies. The district court granted summary judgment, ruling that the plaintiffs’ evidence did not meet the “general acceptance” standard established in Frye v. United States.
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