Dana-Farber Cancer Institute settles $15M suit with Justice Department

Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has agreed to pay $15 million for allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by making false statements and certifications related to National Institutes of Health research grants.

"NIH has limited resources to support important research being conducted at institutions across the country," Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division said in a statement.

"Today's settlement demonstrates that the Department of Justice will pursue grantees that undermine the integrity of federal funding decisions by failing to use research funds appropriately or by failing to abide by grant awards' terms and conditions."

As part of the settlement, Dana-Farber admitted that its researchers used funds from six NIH grants to conduct research that resulted in 14 publications in scientific journals containing misrepresented or duplicated images and data.

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The publications reused images to represent different experimental conditions; duplicated images to represent different testing conditions, mice, or timepoints; or rotated, magnified, or stretched images, a press release from the Justice Department said.

Dana-Farber admitted that a supervising researcher failed to exercise sufficient oversight of these researchers and that Dana-Farber spent funds from those six NIH grants that were not allowed.

"There is no place in scientific research, particularly cancer research, for fraud, waste and abuse, and my office will continue to investigate institutions, no matter how prestigious, to ensure that research data is not tainted and that taxpayer funds are used appropriately," U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement.

"Patients, and the medical community, rely on the important research conducted by institutions like Dana-Farber. It is critical, to say the least, that all research findings are accurately reported,"