Expert's Observational Case Report Can't Support Causation Theory

DETROIT - Expert testimony from a doctor who linked a pharmaceutical product to a plaintiff's alleged injury based on his own published clinical observation of a different patient does not satisfy the Daubert standard for admissibility, a federal magistrate has ruled. Salden v. Matrixx Initiatives Inc., No. 06-10277 (E.D. Mich.).

Magistrate Judge Donald Scheer of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled March 16 that plaintiff Phillip Salden cannot rely on the expert testimony of Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., to show that his loss of smell resulted from using Zicam nasal spray, as Seldon alleged in …