93 



indicating that — a little stronger this time — action would be taken 

 against us. 



At that point, I called Mr. Taussig, who was, I think, the assist- 

 ant general counsel, to discuss with him, to actually kind of let him 

 know that we had submitted two manuscripts for review, and one 

 was going to be published, and the other one was accepted and was 

 going to be published. And that led to him telling me that if these 

 articles were published, they would be suing us, and it would be 

 very long and costly. 



Mr. Synar. So that was the action to be taken? They were going 

 to sue you? 



Mr. DeNoble. That is correct. They also indicated that if they 

 could, they would try to bring an injunction against the journal to 

 prevent publication of the self-administration paper. But that did 

 not occur because I was able to pull it out. 



Mr. Synar. Was this in writing? 



Mr. DeNoble. No, sir, it was not. It was in a phone conversation. 



Mr. Synar. OK. I have a copy of that letter sent to you and Dr. 

 Mele, dated September 10th, Exhibit 16. I'd ask unanimous consent 

 that it be made part of the record. 



Mr. Waxman. Without objection, that will be the order. 



[Exhibit 16 follows:] 



Philip Morris Companies, Inc., 

 120 Park Avenue, New York, NY, September 10, 1986. 



Dr. Victor J. DeNoble, 



5603 Fox Run Drive, Plainsboro, NJ 



Dr. Paul C. Mele, 



3205 Whispering Pines Drive, Silver Spring, MD 



Gentlemen: On April 23, 1986, I sent each of you a letter advising you of your 

 obligations pursuant to the agreement which you signed with the Company at the 

 commencement of your employment. In that letter, I indicated that the Company 

 expected you to comply with the agreement. I also advised you that the Company 

 considered your presentation of a paper at the Federation of American Societies for 

 Experimental Biology in St. Louis in April 1986 based upon research performed at 

 Philip Morris during the course of your employment to be a breach of the agreement 

 since the consent of the Company had not been obtained. 



We have since learned that during the latter part of August, you attended an 

 American Psychological Association meeting in Washington, DC at which time you 

 disclosed information relating to research on a project entitled "Brain Sites Involved 

 in the Mediation of the Behavioral Effects of Intraventricularly Administered Nico- 

 tine." Management has determined that the research relating to this latest presen- 

 tation was performed at Philip Morris. Again, the consent of the Company was not 

 obtained. 



The Company cannot tolerate this kind of conduct. As I stated in my earlier letter, 

 if you wish to publish or otherwise utilize research from Philip Morris, you must 

 request and receive permission from the Company. Any further breach of your 

 agreement will result in action being taken. 

 Very tnily yours, 



Eric A. Taussig, Assistant General Counsel. 



Mr. Synar. Doctor, in this letter that you have before you, Philip 

 Morris says, and I quote, "The company cannot tolerate this type 

 of conduct. Any further breach of your agreement will result in ac- 

 tion being taken." And that was signed by Eric Taussig, the assist- 

 ant general counsel for Philip Morris. So what happened next was 

 that he called you and then 



Mr. DeNoble. No, sir. I called him to let — ^because when I got 

 this letter, we had already sent out two more publications. I called 

 him to let him know that they had gone out. 



