Scientist Steven Eaton, a former employee of drug development company Aptuit, has been jailed for three months for manipulating pre-clinical trial data to make drug experiments look successful when they had failed.  

Appearing at Edinburgh Sheriff's Court on March 10, Mr Eaton, 47, from Cambridgeshire, was found guilty of selectively reporting data "over a number of years", the MHRA reported yesterday (April 17).

Mr Eaton's misreporting had  delayed the development of new medicines significantly and meant many hundreds of safety studies had to be reviewed, the MHRA said.

Aptuit first reported irregularities in its pre-clinical trial data to the MHRA in 2009. The medicines watchdog launched an investigation into the issue and found Mr Eaton had selectively reported data on analytical methods and the concentration of drugs in blood since 2003.

The false reporting made failed experiments, which would determine the concentration of medicines that could be given to clinical trial subjects, appear successful.

Although Mr Eaton had not invalidated the clinical trial results, the MHRA stressed that he had "delayed a number of medicines coming to market, including one to treat depression".

"The sentence sends a message that we will not hesitate to prosecute those whose actions have the potential to harm public health," said MHRA director of inspection, enforcement and standards Gerald Heddell.