Daubert ruling kills plaintiffs case

As reported in IMS Bullseye newsletter, a federal court ruling excluding all expert testimony that the drug-preservative thimerosal caused a minor child's autism is likely to have repercussions well beyond the case in which it came. The judge, Winston-Salem, N.C., U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty Jr, issued the dismissal after he granted a defense motion to exclude all expert testimony drawing a link between thimerosal and autism.

The ruling comes as nearly 5,000 claims await disposition in an omnibus proceeding pending before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

The decision to exclude all expert testimony came after a three-day Daubert hearing. (yikes!) The hearing focused on the testimony of Dr. Mark Geier, the leading proponent of the thimerosal-autism link and an expert witness in many of the vaccine cases. The court noted that the bulk of Dr. Geier's testimony was "not based upon his own research, but instead upon a review of the relevant literature." But the literature he relied on, the court went on to conclude, "does not add up to the opinion and conclusion that Dr. Geier is offering."

The opinion is available on the court's Web site at: www.ncmd.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Jul06/03cv669op.pdf.