By Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles times Key Philip Morris officials suggested that internal documents about sensitive research conducted at a German laboratory be destroyed and that the company take special precautions to make sure negative information be kept secret, according to documents filed yesterday in a Minnesota lawsuit against several major bacco companies. One memo written in November 1977 by a Philip Morris scientist to the mpanys director of research said that if studies on nicotines addictive properties turned out favorably we will want to bury it Accordingly, there are only two copies of this memo, the one tached and the original, which I have, scientist William Dunn wrote to research director Thomas S. Osdene. Another document made public yesterday was an undated, unsigned, handwritten memo from Mr. Osdenes files that Philip Morris turned over to Minnesota lawyers. The note includes the direction that if important letters or documents have to be sent, please send them to home, where I will act on them & destroy. The document appears to be in Mr. Osdenes handwriting, according to the brief filed by lawyers working for the Minnesota attorney general. Minnesota has sued all the major tobacco companies seeking bursement for the cost of treating indigents who suffer smokingrelated illnesses. In its suit, the state alleges that the tobacco companies suppressed research about the addictive nature of tobacco and the health hazards stemming from smoking. The documents offered new details about the German laboratory, called INBIFO, which was purchased in 1971 by Philip Morris Swiss subsidiary, Fabrique Tabac Reunies, or FTR. INBIFO is a German acronym for Institute for Biological Research. Corey L. Gordon, one of the attorneys working for innesota, asserted in a motion filed Tuesday that Philip Morris has long viewed INBIFO as a good place to conduct potentially damaging research, perhaps beyond the purview of discovery.

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