Medical researcher, Steven Eaton, who faked cancer data jailed for three months

A man has become the first to be jailed under new scientific safety laws after faking data for a clinical trial which could have endangered cancer victims.

Steven Eaton was sentenced to three months in prison after changing analytical data would determine the concentration of medicine that could be given to clinical trial subjects – ensuring an experiment was deemed successful when in fact it had failed.

Eaton, 47, from Cambridge- shire, was working at the Edinburgh branch of US pharmaceutical firm Aptuit when he came up with the scam. Investigators from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency discovered that Eaton had been selectively reporting data since 2003.

Sheriff Michael O’Grady told Eaton: “You could have caused cancer patients unquestionable harm. Why... you would embark on such a course of conduct is inexplicable.”