Duke University To Pay $112.5M Over Allegations That Researchers Submitted False Data To Secure NIH, EPA Grants
False claims were submitted in connection with 30 grants, starting in 2006, causing agencies to award funds that they would not otherwise have paid, the Justice Department said. Duke has said it has added a number of quality-control initiatives in recent years to ensure research integrity and will introduce more in the wake of the settlement.
Reuters:
Duke University Pays $112.5 Million In Fake Research Case Sparked By Whistleblower
Duke University agreed to pay $112.5 million to settle claims by a whistleblower that a former research technician knowingly submitted fake data in applications for federal research grants, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday. The accord resolves claims by a former Duke laboratory research analyst who said the Durham, North Carolina-based university knew that Erin Potts-Kant used fraudulent data to obtain grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies. (3/25)
The New York Times:
Duke University To Pay $112.5 Million To Settle Claims Of Research Misconduct
“Taxpayers expect and deserve that federal grant dollars will be used efficiently and honestly,” Matthew G.T. Martin, United States attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, said in a statement. “May this serve as a lesson that the use of false or fabricated data in grant applications or reports is completely unacceptable.” The allegations were initially made in a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by Joseph Thomas, a research analyst who worked in Duke’s pulmonary division. He claimed that another researcher, Erin Potts-Kant, had fabricated data linked to as much as $200 million in federal research grants. (Kaplan, 3/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
Duke University Agrees To Pay $112.5 Million In Whistleblower Suit Over Grants
The settlement “demonstrates that the Department of Justice will pursue grantees that knowingly falsify research and undermine the integrity of federal funding decisions,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt for the Justice Department’s civil division said in a statement. The suit, brought by a former employee, alleged that the university was aware biologist Erin Potts-Kant included fraudulent data in a number of grant applications and reports, including for some work done with Duke pulmonary researcher William Michael Foster, who was named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. (Korn, 3/25)
In other news —
Stat:
Many Leading Universities Still Failing To Report Clinical Trial Results
Results from nearly one-third of hundreds of clinical trials have not been disclosed over the past two years by several of the most prestigious research universities in the U.S., despite federal law requirements, a new analysis has found. Specifically, findings were not posted for 31 percent — or 140 —of 450 studies that were to have been disclosed in public registries as a result of transparency requirements in the FDA Amendments Act, according to Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a student-led organization concerned with access to medicines, and TranspariMED, a nonprofit research advocacy group. (Silverman, 3/25)
