TRC – Tobacco Research Council

TRC – Tobacco Research Council

386. When TMSC changed its name to the Tobacco Research Council ("TRC") in 1963, TRC continued to be funded by BATCo and other United Kingdom tobacco manufacturers. TRC built the Harrogate Labs in England. BATCo sat on the board at the Harrogate Laboratories and was one of the entities that directed the research at Harrogate. Research was conducted at the TRC laboratories in Harrogate from 1962 through 1974, when Harrogate was sold. Its projects included mouse skin painting, inhalation studies, other biological assays, and nicotine pharmacology. Harris

¶TT, 10/18/04, 2752:11-14; Henningfield TT, 11/29/04, 7204:14-19; 321310317-0342 (JD 031027); Read TT, 3/21/05, 16329:5-9.

387. An October 1964 TRC trip report confirmed that Sir Philip J. Rogers, TRC Chairman, and Geoffrey F. Todd, TRC Director, had visited the United States and met with representatives of Defendants RJR, American, B&W, Philip Morris, Liggett, Lorillard, CTR, and the Tobacco Institute, as well as Hill & Knowlton executives and attorney Edwin Jacob, in a series of meetings. The United States manufacturers' main criticism of TRC's bio-assay research at Harrogate was that the research was an "implied admission that cigarettes are harmful." B&W considered TRC's research policy "particularly prejudicial to them through their association with B.A.T." The TRC representatives agreed that Harrogate bio-assay research might be seen as an implied admission, but pointed out that

TRC constantly bore in mind the possible repercussions of its actions in U.S.A. and that T.R.C. research was based on the needs of the situation in the U.K., including a need from the legal point of view to give no grounds for an accusation of negligence against the manufacturers.

¶At one of the meetings with Philip Morris, "[t]he informal agreement between TRC members not to make health claims was explained." 1003119099-9135 at 9106, 9108, 9115 (US 20152); Read TT, 3/21/05, 16335:11-14.

388. Correspondence from Addison Yeaman, B&W General Counsel, to Anthony D. McCormick, BATCo's company secretary, in February 1966 sought to arrange for "a closer liaison between Harrogate, Hamburg and our C.T.R." It noted that "the cigarette companies in the U.S. have given the prime responsibility in the health area to their lawyers" and suggested that the lawyers, who direct "day-by-day decision and policy directions . . . in the first instance" could facilitate this communication, in lieu of the "executive heads" of the respective tobacco companies. The letter noted that Ed Finch, as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tobacco Institute and President of B&W, could head the group and that Ed Jacob of Jacob & Medinger, counsel to CTR, should be included as he "is on retainer from RJR as well as B&W." Yeaman indicated in his letter that he was "troubled" that a prospective Harrogate research report might

concede a significant causal relation between the use of tobacco and cancer of the lung . . . . [W]e would hope to be afforded the opportunity of consulting with the people on your side concerning the way Harrogate's work is presented, admittedly with the hope of "slanting" the report.

¶680204115-4117 (US 20990); Read TT, 3/21/05, 16335:1-10, 16335:17-16336:5.

389. On February 14, 1967, A.W.H. Stewart-Moore, a member of the TRC Executive Committee, sent a letter to Virgil D. Heger, Executive Vice President of American Tobacco, notifying him that TRC would be sending a delegation of scientists to the United States in March to discuss nicotine with scientists designated by CTR. Despite the scientific nature of the meetings, Stewart-Moore indicated that the meetings would include "the lawyers from the major American tobacco manufacturers." 0060293378-3378 (US 85326).