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Dr 'did not see records'
SYDNEY: Dr William McBride ad-
mitted yesterday that he had published
the results of a study linking a drug to
birth defects without having seen the
original records of the experiment.
He told the NSW Medical Tribunal he
had relied on a table supplied to him by
Philip Vardy, an assistant at his private
research centre, Foundation 41.
He said he had never asked to see Mr
Vardy's original data, even after the re-
sults had been queried by a colleague and
by an examiner at the Australian Journal
of Biological Sciences, which published
the study in 1982.
Cross-examined by Richard Burbidge,
QC, for the NSW Health Department's
complaints unit, Dr McBride said, "I
have never seen the original documenta
tion." The Sydney obstetrician and gy
naecologist said Mr Vardy thought the
book in which he recorded the results of
rabbits being injected with hyoscine was
his personal property.
Mr Burbidge: Did you ask for it?
Dr McBride: No.
Mr Burbidge: Why not?
Dr McBride: I can't recall.
Dr McBride admitted also to changing
some of the results after the journal's
examiner told him that if they had been
correct, two or three of the rabbits would
have died.
An inquiry in 1988 found that Dr
McBride had committed scientific fraud
in his reporting of the experiment with
hyoscine, similar to an ingredient in the
morning-sickness drug Debendox.
The man credited with alerting the
world to the danger of thalidomide to
unborn babies is now facing 15 charges,
including that he is "not of good charac-
ter" after publishing false reports of med-
ical research. He is accused also of
making misleading statements as an ex-
pert witness in court cases about drug-in
duced birth defects.
The hearing continues.
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