Doctor who helped expose the thalidomide scandal
Dr William Mcbride 1927-2018
In June 1961, Dr William Mcbride, an obstetrician working in Sydney, took a call from his hospital’s medical superintendent after yet another deformed baby had been born. “What the hell’s going on, Bill?” the superintendent demanded. “I think it’s thalidomide,” Mcbride replied. He had recently delivered three babies born with unusual deformities, including malformed limbs, said The Times. Their mothers came from a range of backgrounds, and from different parts of the state. There was one common denominator: he’d prescribed them all thalidomide, or Distaval, to treat morning sickness.
Mcbride stopped prescribing the drug – which was by then being used by millions of women – and wrote an article warning of its dangers for The Lancet. It was rejected, but when two more deformed babies were born, he tried again. This time, he sent a letter, outlining symptoms and calling for more information. And this time, his letter was published, sparking the Sunday Times investigation that exposed the scandal. Feted as one of the key players in having the drug withdrawn, he became something of a celebrity, profiled in magazines and flown to conferences all over the world – only for his later research on birth deformities to be discredited and his name struck off the register. According to his critics, he was brought down by hubris – an arrogant determination to find a second thalidomide; however, his supporters insisted he was the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated by jealous rivals and the powerful industry he’d dared to challenge.
Born in Sydney in 1927, Mcbride, who has died aged 91, studied medicine at the University of Sydney, and worked in London before joining the Crown Street Hospital. In 1960, a representative of the Distillers Company, which marketed Distaval, persuaded him to try the new drug on his patients. That he was the only doctor in the hospital prescribing it made the link with birth defects easier to establish (although it has been suggested that it was a nurse who first drew his attention to it). His role in exposing the scandal won him acclaim, and also a cash prize which he used to start his own foundation to research the causes of birth defects. It was here, in the 1980s, that he met his undoing, when he became convinced that the drug Debendox was causing deformities – and in trying prove his case (which had led to the drug being withdrawn from the market), he falsified aspects of his research, based on rabbits. After a lengthy battle, he was struck off in 1993. He admitted wrongdoing, but insisted that he’d been convinced the drug was dangerous, and had been trying to save lives. In one of his appeals, the dissenting judge noted: “It must be said bluntly that Dr Mcbride’s contribution to humanity stands higher than that of any other person involved in these proceedings.” Mcbride finally won back his right to practise in 1998, but on the condition that he did no more research.