Who is Hoau-Yan Wang? Scientist behind key $500M Alzheimer's research study is accused of doctoring data, faces federal probe
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Neuroscientist Hoau-Yan Wang, a faculty member of the City University of New York (CUNY), has been accused of manipulating data regarding the Alzheimer’s drug ‘simufilam’. Following this, scientists are calling for scrapping the stage 3 clinical trials of the drug.
In the extensive investigation report prepared by the CUNY, Wang has been accused of scientific misconduct involving 20 research papers, reports Science.
Many of these research papers are responsible for simufilam’s jump from the lab into the clinical field with the biotech company Cassava Sciences actively working on the drug’s impact on treating Alzheimer's’ and involves at least $500 million drug scandal, per Daily Mail.
However, following the initial probe by the CUNY, several scientists are requesting that the stage 3 trial run of the drug be suspended.
What are the accusations against neuroscientist Hoau-Yan Wang?
In the 50-page report seen by Science, Wang is said to have improperly doctored data and images.
They cited the example of a 2012 paper published in ‘The Journal of Neuroscience’, where it was suggested that simufilam can decrease the pathological effects of beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is widely thought to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
The report further insinuated that the senior vice-president for neuroscience at Cassava and co-author of several of Wang’s papers, Lindsay Burns, is partially or primarily responsible for the possible moderation of scientific data.
The suspicion could not be proven as Wang did not submit the original raw data. The panel said that the findings of wrongdoings are based on “long-standing and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping by Dr Wang.”
The panel said that Wang failed to produce to the university “even a single datum or notebook in response to any allegation.”
They say “Wang’s inability or unwillingness to provide primary research materials to this investigation” facilitated a “deep source of frustration.”
CUNY biochemist Kevin Gardner said what the panel found was “embarrassing beyond words.” Gardner was a part of the group that helped in the primary assessment of Wang’s work, but was not a part of the final review.
He added that the neuroscientist’s record of research is “abhorrent."
What did neuroscientist Hoau-Yan Wang say?
While Wang’s attorney Jennifer Beidel Scramlin refused to comment on the matter until speaking with CUNY, the report said that Wang offered various defenses on his behalf.
He said that he could not produce much of his raw data as most of the original data has been “thrown away in response to a request from CCNY [City College of New York, and a part of CUNY] to clean the lab during the COVID-19 pandemic.” No evidence for such a claim has been found, however.
Why did CUNY begin investigating Hoau-Yan Wang's research study?
The investigation carried out by CUNY started in the fall of 2021 after the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) forwarded several other investigative reports to them.
ORI is a federal entity that is responsible for checking on the work funded by the National Institutes of Health.
It has been reported that NIH gave millions of dollars to Wang and Burns to carry out their research with Burns getting around $1.2 million since December 2020.