Despicable: Alzheimer’s Researcher Indicted for $16 Million NIH Funding Fraud

A federal grand jury has reportedly indicted Hoau-Yan Wang, a 67-year-old medical professor at the City University of New York, for allegedly falsifying data to fraudulently obtain $16 million in federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of a controversial Alzheimer’s drug and diagnostic test.

Ars Technica reports that the indictment marks a significant development in the ongoing controversy surrounding Alzheimer’s research and drug development. Wang, who was a paid collaborator with the Austin, Texas-based pharmaceutical company Cassava Sciences, is accused of manipulating data and images to secure funding for research related to Simufilam, Cassava’s experimental Alzheimer’s treatment currently in Phase III trials.

Simufilam, a small-molecule drug, has been touted by Cassava as a potential breakthrough in Alzheimer’s treatment. The company claims that the drug can restore the structure and function of a scaffolding protein in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients, potentially slowing cognitive decline. However, the scientific community has long harbored doubts and concerns about the research underpinning these claims.

The allegations against Wang are particularly damning. According to the indictment, he is charged with falsifying scientific research results by manipulating data and images of Western blots, a technique used to separate and detect proteins. The charges include artificially adding or subtracting protein bands and altering their thickness or darkness to support predetermined conclusions.

In 2023, an internal investigation at CUNY examined 31 misconduct allegations made against Wang in 2021. The investigating committee found evidence “highly suggestive of deliberate scientific misconduct” for 14 of these allegations. The report concluded that “the integrity of Dr. Wang’s work remains highly questionable” and revealed “long-standing and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping.”

The repercussions of Wang’s alleged misconduct have been far-reaching. In March 2022, five of his articles published in the journal PLOS One were retracted due to integrity concerns with images in the papers. Other publications by Wang have also been retracted or had statements of concern attached to them.

Breitbart News reported on much of the falsifying of data around Alzheimer’s research, writing in 2022:

Neuroscientist Matthew Schrag of Vanderbilt University set the world of Alzheimer’s research on fire by launching an investigation that discredited one of the key studies of the disease — a 2006 study upon which a great deal of subsequent research was based. Last Thursday, Science magazine blew the scandal into orbit by concluding that some of the visual evidence included in the 2006 study was deliberately doctored, an overture to what could be one of the worst cases of scientific fraud in history.

The landmark study was published in Nature by neuroscientist and University of Minnesota associate professor Sylvain Lesne in 2006. To make a very long and intricate story short, Lesne claimed to have isolated a protein that caused memory loss in rats by creating plaque deposits in their brains.

Further compounding the issue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted an inspection in September 2022 of the analytical work and techniques used by Wang to analyze blood and cerebrospinal fluid from patients in a simufilam trial. The investigation uncovered numerous serious problems, as detailed in a report obtained by Science magazine.

The charges against Wang are severe. He faces one count of major fraud against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of false statements. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for the major fraud charge, 20 years for each count of wire fraud, and five years for the false statements charge.

Cassava Sciences, in response to the indictment, has distanced itself from Wang, referring to him as a “former” scientific adviser. The company stated that the grants central to the indictment were related to the early development phases of their drug candidate and diagnostic test. They emphasized that Wang had no involvement in the company’s ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials of simufilam, which are estimated to include over 1,800 patients across several countries.