from 1994 - 'Thalidomide' doctor alleges plot to gag him

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sheri

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/thalidomide-doctor-alleges-plot-to-gag-him-1424275.html

'Thalidomide' doctor alleges plot to gag him

ROBERT MILLIKEN in Sydney

Wednesday, 22 June 1994

IN THE wake of a dramatic fall from grace, 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 The drug was later withdrawn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 n 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 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, , 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 said

that 'money was no object'. Dr McBride writes: 'Admiral Crabb warned me

that he was sure 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 Baker, managing

director of n 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.

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

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