IDA Exposes "Intellectual Fraud" of NIH-Funded Researcher

Minneapolis, Minn. (March 16, 2004) - The clearly documented
misrepresentations of data by an NIH-funded researcher should prompt action by Congress, federal agencies and medical journals, and raise fundamental questions about the adequacy of government oversight as well as a system that relies heavily on the integrity of researchers, In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today.

In multiple complaints - available at http://www.idausa.org/txu - IDA documents that NIH-funded researcher Dr. Fatih Uckun withheld the fact that three of eight chimpanzees died in two separate tests of the drug TXU-PAP sponsored by his company at the now-defunct Coulston Foundation primate testing lab. Uckun withheld the deaths of the chimpanzees Terrance, Muffin and Holly in a published medical journal article, and the death of Holly in a U.S. patent application.

The evidence contained in IDA's complaints formed the basis of an expose published by the Minneapolis Star Tribune on March 14, 2004, in which ethics professor Rabbi J. David Bleich stated unequivocally that Dr. Uckun's actions "certainly would be considered intellectual fraud." The Star Tribune article is at
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1557/4662476.html or
http://www.idausa.org/txu/startribune.pdf.

In March 2000, IDA testified before Congress about Uckun's failure to mention the three deaths, and in 1999 had repeatedly warned the FDA about IDA's concerns, based on numerous factors, regarding the safety of people - including children with cancer - who were enrolled in clinical trials of TXU-PAP, a drug which Uckun invented and has touted as a "magic bullet" treatment for AIDS and cancer.

"What Rabbi Bleich characterized as Uckun's 'intellectual fraud' could be just the tip of the iceberg," said IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman. "Who knows how widespread this type of dishonesty truly is when the entire system of oversight relies so heavily on the good faith of researchers like Uckun?"

Kleiman noted that, according to the Star Tribune, Uckun voluntarily gave up the bulk of his grant months after IDA testified.

"We don't know if there was any connection, but we do know how extraordinarily rare it is for a researcher to surrender NIH grant money," he said.

Kleiman called the NIH's claim that it did not know of the chimpanzee deaths before awarding the grant "almost inconceivable" in light of the widespread international publicity; Congressional attention; formal USDA charges against the Coulston Foundation; and the FDA's findings of extensive Good Laboratory Practice violations, all of which related to the Uckun-sponsored tests in which Terrance, Muffin and Holly died.

Kleiman said that Uckun grant award raises "fundamental questions" about NIH oversight, grant approval, stewardship of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, and data integrity, especially in light of Uckun's extraordinary surrender of $750,000 in NIH funds because of "safety of the treatment." These and other points are detailed in IDA's request that Congress expand its investigation of the NIH - which was apparently prompted by the violations at the Coulston lab - to include the funding of Uckun.

Kleiman said the fundamental problems with the system are also exemplified by the fact that Uckun is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Leukemia and Lymphoma, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Taylor & Francis Journals. IDA has also requested that Taylor & Francis remove Uckun from this post.

"We can only wonder how many Fatih Uckun's are out there, abusing animals and misrepresenting data," concluded Kleiman. "Only Congress has the power to discover the truth."

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