Tobacco On Trial

Mar 29, 2005, 5:54 PM Washington, DC.
Dr. Anthony Albino, a former Sloan Kettering cancer researcher who is now Vector Tobacco’s Senior Vice President of Public Health Affairs, testified today, primarily on the morphing of Liggett’s old XA/Palladium project into today’s Omni cigarette.

By the time DOJ attorney Carolyn Clark finished her cross-examination, it seemed Vector had a pretty simple time reviving XA and developing it into a commercial product. The job had been accomplished in less than a year after a specialist in metals chemistry and catalysts, a Dr. Berryman (sp?) was hired by Vector.

Liggett Group attorney Leonard Feiwus in his redirect partially reclaimed Dr. Albino’s testimony by bringing out that Dr. Berryman had probably been a consultant with Vector for a period of time before he was actually hired, and had a team of at least 30 researchers to assist in the development of the palladium catalyst.

Dr. Albino, a real New Yorker with gray hair and a Ray Romano voice (as one Defense counsel pointed out), testified that the main problem with XA was the chemistry–the spraying process had been too inconsistent previously. And it was this that had been the problem in the 70s and early 80s, primarily, that had been solved using technology only available lately.

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