Background
McBride, William Griffith was born on May 25, 1927 in Sydney, Australia. Son of John and Myrine (Griffith) McBride.
McBride, William Griffith was born on May 25, 1927 in Sydney, Australia. Son of John and Myrine (Griffith) McBride.
Doctor of Medicine, 1961. Resident medical officer Saint George Hospital, 1950, Launceston Hospital, 1951, Women"s Hospital, Sydney, 1952-1953. Medical superintendent Women"s Hospital, 1955-1957, gynecologist, 1958-1982.
Lecturer Northwestern University, Case Western Reserve University, University of California, Davis, Columbia University, University of Oxford, Free U. Berlin, Bangkok University, Bombay University, Singapore U. Consultant Saint George Hospital, 1958, WestMead Hospital, 1983.
Founder, director Foundation 41, birth defects research, Sydney, 1972.
Consultant obstetrics-gynecology Royal Hospital for Women, 1983-1988, World Health Organization study committee safety oral contraceptives, 1971. Member expert committee Environmental Protection Agency. examiner in Ob-Gyn, U. Sydney, U. New South Wales. Member NSW Maternal and Perinatal Committee, 1977-1983.
Director Barrington Pastoral Company Proprietary Limited.
Consultant gynaecologist Lyndon Baines Johnson tropical Medical Center, Pago Pago, American Samoa, 1998. Board of directors Australian Opera, 1979, Women"s Hospital of Sydney, 1973-1979.
International judge Hereford Cattle, United Kingdom.
He discovered the teratogenicity of thalidomide, which resulted in the reduction of the number of drugs prescribed during pregnancy. Doctor McBride published a letter in The Lancet, in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed Thalidomide. Using the prize money, he established Foundation 41, a Sydney-based medical research foundation concerned with the causes of birth defects.
This finding stimulated their experimentation, which showed that thalidomide may inhibit cell division in rapidly dividing cells of malignant tumors.
This work was published in the journal "Pharmacology and Toxicology" in 1999 and has been rated in the top ten of the most important Australian medical discoveries. (The Sydney Morning Herald - 2005)
McBride"s involvement in the is less illustrious.
In 1981 he published a paper indicating that the drug Debendox (marketed in the United States as Bendectin) caused birth defects. His coauthors noted that the published paper contained manipulated data and protested but their voices went unheard.
Multiple lawsuits followed by patients and McBride was a willing witness for the claimants.
Eventually, the case was investigated and, as a result, McBride was struck off the Australian medical register in 1993 for deliberately falsifying data. An inquiry determined "we are forced to conclude that Doctor McBride did publish statements which he either knew were untrue or which he did not genuinely believe to be true, and in that respect was guilty of scientific fraud." He was reinstated to the medical register in 1998.
FellowRoyal College Ob-Gyn, Royal Society Medicine, Senate University of Sydney, Royal Australian College Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Royal Society Medicine. Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, Teratology Society, Reproductive Biology Society, Endocrine Society, Australian Medical Association (president Ob-Gyn section 1966-1976), Society Risk Analysis, American College Toxicology, Royal Agricultural Society New South Wales (council), New York Academy Science, Royal Society Medicine, Behavioural Toxicology Society, Neurobehavioral Teratology Society. Clubs: Union, Australian Jockey, Royal Sydney, Palm Beach Surf.
Married Patricia Mary Glover, February 16, 1959. Children: Louise, Catherine, John R., David West. Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, U. Sydney, 1950.
