'Thalidomide' doctor alleges plot to gag him
 

sound familiar?
'Thalidomide' doctor alleges plot to gag him
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...m-1424275.html

ROBERT MILLIKEN in Sydney

Wednesday, 22 June 1994



IN THE wake of a dramatic fall from grace, William McBride, the Australian
doctor who first alerted the world to the dangers of the thalidomide anti-
nausea drug, has accused international drug companies of a conspiracy to
bring about his demise.

Dr McBride, once an Australian medical hero, was struck off the country's
medical register and declared unfit to practise last year after being found
guilty of scientific fraud. The charges related to experiments in 1980 in
which he sought to prove that Debendox, another anti-morning- sickness drug,
caused birth deformities as thalidomide had done 20 years earlier.

Dr McBride's letter to the Lancet in 1961, following his observations of
pregnant women in his Sydney practice, was the first public warning that
thalidomide could cause deformities in the babies of women who took it
during pregnancy. The drug was later withdrawn from the market and
Distillers, the company which sold it, faced an avalanche of legal cases in
Britain and Australia.

As Dr McBride awaits the verdict from an appeal against his punishment over
the Debendox affair, he opened another controversy yesterday with the
publication of a book in which he claims that Marion Merrell Dow, the United
States pharmaceuticals giant which marketed Debendox, worked in concert with
an unnamed 'mole' in Australia to stop him from speaking out against the
drug.

Dr McBride appeared as a witness against Merrell Dow in several US court
cases during the 1980s in which parents blamed Debendox for deformities in
their children. The flood of threatened litigation in the US, Britain and
elsewhere became so heavy that Merrell Dow withdrew Debendox from the market
in 1983, saying it could not afford the legal bills. The company has won 30
out of 32 cases which have gone through the US courts; two cases are on
appeal.

Dr McBride's downfall began in 1987 when a radio science programme in
Australia accused him of faking experiments with scopolamine, a
travel-sickness drug which has similar actions to a component of Debendox.
An inquiry set up by Foundation 41, the Sydney research institute which he
headed (named after the 40 weeks of pregnancy and the first week after
birth), found the case against him proved.

The New South Wales medical tribunal launched an inquiry into the same
charges. It dragged on for three and a half years, ending with Dr McBride
being struck off last July. In his book, Killing the Messenger, Dr McBride
writes: 'Without flattering myself, I am sure the decision was received with
pleasure by many of the international drug companies.'

He describes how John Crabb, a retired rear-admiral in the Australian navy,
and then doing intelligence work, alerted him in 1980 of a bizarre event.
According to Mr Crabb, George Barnes, a Los Angeles private investigator,
approached him, saying that he had been hired by a pharmaceutical company
against which Dr McBride was then giving evidence in the US; he was seeking
information about the doctor. Mr Barnes said that 'money was no object'. Dr
McBride writes: 'Admiral Crabb warned me that he was sure Barnes would make
contact with someone in Australia who would head the McBride operation, the
object of which was to procure evidence adverse to me.'

Mr Crabb confirmed the book's account yesterday. But John Baker, managing
director of Marion Merrell Dow in Australia, dismissed the conspiracy
theory. 'It is entirely incorrect. There is no factual basis for it. The
company isn't in the business of encouraging conspiracies. We had nothing to
do with the inquiry into Dr McBride. We shall be closely examining his book
and reserving our right to take whatever action.'

Mr Baker said that the scientific evidence in favour of Debendox was
'totally overwhelming'.

After one of the most spectacular falls the medical world has seen, Dr
McBride remained unrepentant yesterday over his latest allegations. His
legal bills of 2.2m Australian dollars ( pounds 1m) to cover the inquiry
forced him to sell his three homes and he is now largely shunned by the
society which once lauded him.