United States v. Lawrence E. Wood

Lawrence E. Wood appeals the denial by the district court of his motion for a new trial or dismissal of the charges against him, alleging the existence of newly-discovered evidence favorable to him that the government had failed to disclose. Wood’s appeal raises the question of the responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration (the FDA) to disclose in a criminal trial the content of Inves-tigational New Drug applications (INDs) that bear on the safety of the drug a defendant is charged with unlawfully dispensing. Holding that the FDA failed to discharge its obligation of disclosure, we remand to the district court for that court to determine what effect the FDA’s failure had on the outcome of the trial.

PROCEEDINGS

On June 18, 1991, Wood and his co-defendant Daniel R. Duchaine were charged in Count I with conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 to defraud the FDA by obstructing the FDA’s function of ensuring that prescription drugs are safe and effective and dispensed pursuant to a prescription from a practitioner licensed by law to administer such drugs. The drugs in question were gamma hydroxybutrate and gamma hydroxy-butyric acid sodium salt (collectively GHB) and…