Kenneth Marc Ludmerer

Kenneth Marc Ludmerer, M.D. in 1991 was an Associate Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, and an Associate Professor of History in the University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He serves as a witness for the defense (for cigarette companies) in trials against the tobacco industry. He testified in the trial of Rose Defrancesco Cipollone. He testifies that prior to the 1950s, there was no "reliable scientific or medical evidence that cigarette smoking posed a serious threat to the public health. He admitted in the Cipollone case that in coming to this conclusion, he only reviewed publicly-available medical literature, and did not ask for or see any internal tobacco industry documents on this subject.

Work for the tobacco industry
Ludmerer has served as a past president of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and has quietly worked as an expert witness for tobacco companies since the late 1980s. In a deposition given during for his work as an expert witness in USA v Philip Morris Inc., et al, the federal government's racketeering case against the tobacco industry, Ludmerer admitted to having worked on at least thirteen separate trials over 15 years, always for the defense, and that he earned over $500,000 dollars in aggregate for his testimony during that time.

Dr. Ludmerer testified that he charges the industry $350/hour, and $3,500/day if he stays overnight.

= Biography =

MR. Ludmerer was an Expert of State of the Art and he gave a deposition for the Cipollone v. Liggett, et al case on two different dates, one part was 196 pgs on 3/25/91 and the other was 220 pgs on 3/26/91. (PMI's Revised Initial Disclosure, June 27, 1996). He was used as an expert in the Mississippi case.