Great Frauds in & about Science

[cwes99_03]

Lest anyone forget about the various crop circles around the world.

Particularly I remember some in England that were later discovered to have been created by college kids.

[Michaelangelica]

Merck
Merck Caught in Massive Scientific Fraud as In-House Authors were Disguised as Independent Scientists (opinion)
(NaturalNews) Drug giant Merck has been caught red-handed in a scheme to deceive the FDA and the public over the integrity of its scientific studies, say top medical authorities. According to reports that were (amazingly!) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and detailed in the Washington Post, Merck waged a "campaign of deception" to disguise its in-house study authors as independent scientists working for universities.
This scheme made the studies appear independent and unbiased, allowing them to carry more apparent credibility to FDA officials, doctors and other scientists.

This fraud was conducted to boost the apparent scientific credibility of the studies backing Vioxx, a drug that has caused well over 100,000 heart attacks and likely killed well over 50,000 Americans, according to Senate testimony by the FDA's own senior drug safety researcher Dr. David Graham. Vioxx earned Merck $2.3 billion in 2003 alone, and was one of the most lucrative drugs ever sold by any company.
But since 2004, when some of the real dangers of the drug became known, a tremendous amount of evidence leading to fraud has surfaced.

It now appears quite clear that Merck deliberately lied about the dangers of the drug, misrepresented the results of scientific studies, deceived the FDA to win drug approval, knowingly covered up evidence of the drug's dangers, and now it seems Merck even conducted a deliberate campaign of deceptive

Merck Caught in Massive Scientific Fraud as In-House Authors were Disguised as Independent Scientists (opinion)

[Michaelangelica]

This must go down as the greatest financial fraud by one individual ever.
Bernard Madoff makes Columbian or Burmese Drug Barrons look like very small change.
He single handily ripped off $50 US BILLION (+?)
How does he rank with Mafia crime Bosses, Jesse James and the historical great swindlers?

I'll squeeze him in here under "Economics" or "Psychology" or "Sociology" or "Politics".
One article even suggests "Medicine" or should we start a "Criminology" thread?

This article attributed to the Boston Globe (although I can't find it on their web site) has been reprinted in its entirety in just about every paper in Australia.

It is the story of how one man Harry Markopolos stalked the famous investor through computer analysis of his supposed trading practices and returns for 8+ years.
He continually wrote to Regulatory Authorities about his concerns and suspicions

Madoff seemed to make money whether stockmarkets went up or down, a red flag to Markopolos.

"You can't dominate all markets," Markopolos said. "You have to have some losses." Also, Madoff seemed unusually secretive, even to his own clients - another warning sign.

Markopolos eventually decided Madoff was either running a Ponzi scheme - using money from new clients to pay off old ones - or he was "front running" stocks, improperly trading in investors' private accounts before orders the firm received from outside clients.

Man who chased fraud hopes buzz will fade

The interesting thing is now that Madoff has been arrested; is he in jail?
No.
He is under "house arrest" in his multi-million dollar palatial home.
He recently complained that he could not go out to eat or visit friends
(He still has friends??)
The poor dear.
This in a country with the Death Penalty?
Astounding!

Reporters & friends outside Madoff's NY apartment building

He might even make a fortune writing his story!

The rush to write a Madoff book
December 19th, 2008

Jeffrey Trachtenberg of The Wall Street Journal writes Friday about the business journalists who are already working on books about disgraced hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff.

Trachtenberg writes, “Only a week after Mr. Madoff was arrested by federal agents on a charge of securities fraud, News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers said it has acquired world rights to a book about Mr. Madoff to be written by journalist Andrew Kirtzman. The HarperCollins book, which doesn’t yet have a title, is to be published in 2010.

“News Corp. also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

“Separately, Bertelsmann AG’s Random House imprint said late Thursday that it, too, is acquiring the rights to a Madoff book. The so-far untitled work by investigative reporter Richard Behar is to be published in 2010.

“‘This is a story that isn’t going away,’ said Claire Wachtel, an executive editor at the Harper imprint who acquired Mr. Kirtzman’s book. ‘It’s the human element that makes it so interesting.’”

Read more here
.Talking Biz News Wall Street Journal

Talking Biz News Wall Street Journal

Does Bernard Madoff have a Hormonal Imbalance?

Does Bernard Madoff have a Hormonal Imbalance? - rahul k. parikh - Open Salon


Other articles
Bernard Madoff--The Biggest Fraud

Search - Open Salon

[Michaelangelica]

The lighter side of scientific fraud

By Bob Grant
The Scientist : The lighter side of scientific fraud [28th January 2009 03:46 PM GMT]

...Then what IS this rash, then?

Findings of Scientific Misconduct
Dr. Luk Van Parijs
NOT-OD-09-040: Findings of Scientific Misconduct

[Michaelangelica]

Maybe not "Great" yet, but things are slow in the great department-you do better!

FDA Takes New Regulatory Action Against Ranbaxy’s Paonta Sahib Plant in India

Agency halts review of drug applications from plant due to evidence of falsified data; invokes Application Integrity Policy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that a facility owned by India-based Ranbaxy Laboratories falsified data and test results in approved and pending drug applications. The facility, Paonta Sahib, has been under an FDA Import Alert since September 2008.
Skip Navigation
Skip Navigation
FDA Logo links to FDA home page
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
HHS Logo links to Department of Health and Human Services website

FDA Home Page | CDER Home Page | CDER Site Info | Contact CDER | What's New @ CDER

CDER Home About CDER Drug Information Regulatory Guidance CDER Calendar Specific Audiences CDER Archives


Search Powered by Google



A List of Drugs Manufactured at the Dewas and Paonta Sahib Facilities
of Ranbaxy Laboratories, Ltd. (Revised September 24, 2008)
Finished Drugs Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient(s)
Acyclovir
Amoxicillin
Amoxicillin and Clavulanate Potassium
Carbidopa and Levodopa
Cefaclor
Cefadroxil
Cefpodoxime Proxetil
Cefprozil
Cefuroxime Axetil
Cephalexin
Ciprofloxacin HCl
Clarithromycin
Fenofibrate
Fluconazole
Fosinopril Sodium
Fosinopril Sodium and Hydrochlorothiazide
Gabapentin
Ganciclovir Sodium *
Glimepiride
Isotretinoin
Loratadine (OTC)
Metformin HCl
Nefazodone HCl
Nitrofurantoin; Nitrofurantoin and Macrocrystalline
Ofloxacin
Pravastatin Sodium
Ranitidine
Terazosin HCl
Valacyclovir HCl
Zidovudine

Acyclovir
Ciprofloxacin HCl
Clarithromycin
Gabapentin
Ganciclovir Sodium *
Pravastatin Sodium
Valacyclovir HCl

* Products not affected by Import Alert.

to top arrow Back to Top back arrow Back to Ranbaxy Information

PDF document PDF requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader

Date created: September 16, 2008; updated September 24, 2008

[Michaelangelica]

This is anaughty but good one!

News:
OA publisher accepts fake paper
Posted by Bob Grant
[Entry posted at 10th June 2009 11:13 AM GMT]
View comments(24) | Comment on this news story

An open access journal has agreed to publish a nonsensical article written by a computer program, claiming that the manuscript was peer reviewed and requesting that the "authors" pay $800 in "open access fees."

Philip Davis, a PhD student in scientific communications at Cornell University, and Kent Anderson, executive director of international business and product development at the New England Journal of Medicine, submitted the fake manuscript to The Open Information Science Journal (TOISCIJ) at the end of January.


Davis generated the paper, which was titled "Deconstructing Access Points," using a computer program -- called SCIgen -- created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He and Anderson signed the work using pseudonyms (David Phillips and Andrew Kent).
The two listed the "Center for Research in Applied Phrenology" (CRAP) as their home institution on the paper, which featured fictitious tables, figures and references

OA publisher accepts fake paper :The Scientist [10th June 2009]

[Michaelangelica]

Life After Fraud
You put your name into Google, and the first entry is about a transgression from 20 years ago, the penalty for which only lasted three years. Now you can't get a job.

Each year, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI) investigates dozens of charges of scientific misconduct. And each year, the ORI adds a handful of names to a list of researchers found guilty of falsifying figures, fabricating data, or committing other academic infractions.
As of April 1, 2009, this Administrative Actions list, presented on the ORI Web site, carried 38 names. These people are barred from receiving federal funds and/or serving on a Public Health Service committee, typically for a period of 3–5 years.
Once the debarment term is up, the name disappears from the list. In theory, the punishment—and the shame—of the ordeal is over.

Life After Fraud :The Scientist [2009-07-01]

[Michaelangelica]

Quoted to-night as being an example of out-of-control science /genetic engineering on the ABC's Book Show
Amazing how powerful that image was, tapping into our Frankenstein fears.

'Ear-ie' Biotech Scare

"Who plays God in the 21st century?" captioned an October 11, 1999 full-page ad in the New York Times attacking genetic engineering. Placed by a coalition including Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, the ad featured a photo of a shaved laboratory mouse with what looks like a human ear attached to its back.
The caption stated, "This is an actual photo of a genetically engineered mouse with a human ear on its back." As it turned out, it wasn't a real ear and it had nothing to do with genetic engineering.
A template in the shape of a human ear was seeded with human cartilage cells and surgically implanted on the back of a mouse. The cartilage cells grew into the ear-like structure. The technology’s purpose is to help children who are either born without ears or who lose their ears through injury. Read more…

Top 10 Junk Science Scams - HUMAN EVENTS
More so called scams/frauds at site

[Michaelangelica]

Pfizer pleads guilty to felony crime in fraudulent marketing of Bextra, pays billions in fines

. . . .You can read the DOJ documents describing the settlement here: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/Se...

Essentially, Pfizer asked the FDA to approve Bextra for a variety of diseases and conditions, and when the FDA refused those approvals, Pfizer decided to go ahead and market the drugs for those diseases and conditions anyway (off-label marketing).

But that's not all. In the DOJ statement, you'll read the following:

Pfizer has agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs -- Bextra; Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug -- and caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs for uses that were not medically accepted indications and therefore not covered by those programs. The civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe these, as well as other, drugs.
The federal share of the civil settlement is $668,514,830 and the state Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $331,485,170.
This is the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.

False claims, kickbacks, felony crimes and civil fraud... it

Pfizer pleads guilty to felony crime in fraudulent marketing of Bextra, pays billions in fines by Mike Adams the Health Ranger