WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley is seeking information from the federal agency in charge of medical research oversight on how it disciplines responsible parties in fraud cases.
Grassley’s inquiry to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity came after an Iowa State University scientist falsified AIDS vaccine results in a federally funded clinical trial. The researcher received a three-year ban from participating in federally financed research.
Grassley wrote that the Office of Research Integrity “has a responsibility to ensure proper oversight of taxpayer money used to fund medical research. When researchers abuse the public’s trust by tampering with trials, ORI should use all the powers at its disposal to resolve the problem and recover federal grant money for that research.”
He asked a series of questions to learn how the agency responds in fraud cases, such as whether it ever tries to recover the grant money.
The text of Grassley’s letter is available here.
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