|
David Frederick Horrobin (6 October 1939 – 1 April 2003) was an entrepreneur, medical researcher, author and editor. He is best known as the founder of the biotechnology company Scotia Holdings and as a promoter of evening primrose oil as a medical treatment,〔 Quote: "Dr Horrobin was best known for creating Scotia Holdings, a once sprawling biotechnology company which has the unfortunate distinction of being the UK’s only quoted biotechnology company to have collapsed into administration." 〕 Horrobin was founder and editor of the journals ''Medical Hypotheses'' and ''Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids'', the latter journal (initially titled ''Prostaglandins and Medicine'') co-founded with his then graduate student Morris Karmazyn. Horrobin believed that many diseases involve a lack of fatty acid precursors and might be alleviated by supplementing with the appropriate fatty acid. Horrobin's efforts focused on evening primrose oil, which contains gamma-linolenic acid. In the 1980s, Horrobin sold primrose oil in the United States without legally demonstrating its safety and efficacy,〔 leading to government confiscations and felony indictments of his associates.〔〔 Horrobin was later accused of withholding research data and suppressing the reports of scientists who questioned his claims.〔〔 During Horrobin's tenure as chief executive, Scotia Pharmaceuticals obtained licences for several drugs based on evening primrose oil, but these licenses were withdrawn for lack of efficacy. Amidst charges of mismanagement and research fraud, Horrobin was ousted as CEO by a unanimous vote of the board and left the company in 1998. In 2001, Scotia, one of the first publicly traded biotechnology companies in the United Kingdom,〔 also became the first to collapse.〔〔("Should we give the biotechies money to burn?" ) Rosie Murray-West, The Telegraph, 11 September 2004.〕 After Horrobin's departure from Scotia, he founded Laxdale Ltd., a company that investigated omega-3 fatty acids as possible treatments for schizophrenia and neurodegenerative diseases. Horrobin died of pneumonia as a complication of mantle cell lymphoma in 2003. Obituaries noted his contributions to the biotechnology industry, intellectual acumen, original thinking and adventurousness, while some criticised his promotion of primrose oil and other questionable claims. Notably controversial〔("Primrose Oil and Eczema: How Research Was Promoted and Suppressed" ) Stephen Barrett, Quackwatch, 31 January 2004.〕〔〔("'A rotter, a snake oil salesman, a chancer' - how scientist's obituary sparked a storm. A vitriolic attack in the British Medical Journal has devastated eminent academic David Horrobin's family, reports Robin McKie" ) Robin McKie, The Oberver, in The Guardian, 25 May 2003.〕 obituaries in ''The Independent''〔 and the ''British Medical Journal''〔 angered Horrobin's friends and family by also portraying negative aspects of Horrobin's life, with the ''BMJ'' obituary stating that Horrobin "may prove to be the greatest snake oil salesman of his age".〔 == Education and academic career == Born in Bolton, a town near Manchester, England, Horrobin attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, and King's College in Wimbledon. He studied medicine on scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford, obtaining degrees in both medicine and surgery, and during the same period earned a doctorate in neurophysiology and neuroendocrinology. On completing his pre-clinical work, Horrobin became a fellow of Magdalen College in 1963. At Magdalen, he was strongly influenced by the nutritionist Hugh Macdonald Sinclair and his hypotheses on essential fatty acids and degenerative disease. Following participation in the Flying Doctor Service in east Africa, Horrobin was appointed as professor and chairman of medical physiology at Nairobi University in Kenya. In 1972, he moved to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he was appointed as a reader in medical physiology. In 1975, he became professor of medicine at the University of Montreal.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「David Horrobin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|