Published Resources Details
Journal Article
- Title
- Michael Briggs 1935-1986. Faked data on the safety of oral contraceptive preparations taken by millions of women
- In
- Dr Geoff [blog]: Serving up the tasty truth . . without all the junk
- Imprint
- drgeoffnutrition.wordpress.com, 20 December 2017
- Url
- https://drgeoffnutrition.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/michael-briggs-1935-1986-faked-data-on-the-safety-of-oral-contraceptive-preparations-taken-by-millions-of-women/comment-page-1/
- Format
- HTML
- Abstract
Michael Briggs was a British born biochemist who worked at Deakin University in Australia and was regarded as an expert on assessing the safety of oral contraceptives. He was a WHO adviser on the contraceptive pill and its risks especially on biochemical changes that might be used to predict risk. In around 1983, he was accused of research fraud by the chair of the ethics committee at Deakin, Dr Jim Rossiter. Briggs initially replied that these accusations were about trivial inconsistencies and memory lapses but in August 1985 he resigned his position and moved to Spain. He admitted to a Sunday Times journalist (Brian Deer) in an interview published in 1986 that he had committed research fraud and fabricated data. He died in Spain from liver failure shortly after this interview at the age of 51. (Bibliography and available links at the end.)