Bristol-Myers Researcher Falsified Data In Grants And PhD Thesis

A Bristol-Myers Squibb researcher faked or falsified data in grant applications to the US National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association, as well as his PhD thesis and two published papers, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services Office of Research Integrity (see this). The disclosure was first reported by Retraction Watch. Instances of falsified data have caused considerable embarrassment to other large drugmakers this year. Both Novartis (NVS) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) were embroiled in scandals in Japan and China, respectively (read here and here). However, the examples cited by the ORI apparently took place before the researcher began work at Bristol-Myers. A Bristol-Myers (BMY) spokeswoman declined to comment. Specifically, the ORI found that Nitin Aggarwal falsified “Western blot loading control data by inverting, duplicating, and cropping source blot films and/or using films from unrelated experiments to construct five false Western blot figures.” And “in the absence of valid blot images, he falsified and/or fabricated the corresponding quantitative data for summary bar graphs and the data statistics in related text.” He also “admitted to falsely reporting the number of mice reported for an experiment reported in Figure 4 in grant application HL113518-01 to support the hypothesis of the research,” according to the ORI statement, which lists the papers and grant applications. Aggarwal received his PhD from the Medical Coll...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs