A man has been jailed for faking data for a clinical trial, health regulators said.
Steven Eaton was today sentenced to three months in prison for altering pre-clinical trial data, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said.
He has become the first person in the UK to be jailed under the scientific safety laws.
The 47-year-old, from Cambridgeshire, was working at the Edinburgh branch of US pharmaceutical firm Aptuit when he came up with the scam.
Officials at the company realised that something was amiss and contacted authorities in February 2009.
Investigators from the MHRA discovered that Eaton had been selectively reporting research data since 2003.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how Eaton changed analytical data that would be used to determine the concentration of medicine that could be given to clinical trial subjects.
A spokesman said that the data manipulation ensured an experiment was deemed successful when in fact it had failed.
"Mr Eaton's actions directly impacted on the validity of clinical trials and delayed a number of medicines coming to market, including one to treat depression," said Gerald Heddell, director of inspection, enforcement and standards at the MHRA.
"The sentence sends a message that we will not hesitate to prosecute those whose actions have the potential to harm public health."
The MHRA said that is the first time they have successfully prosecuted someone using the 1999 Good Laboratory Practice Regulations.
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