Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17480
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Burton TM, Armstrong D
Grassley Probes Kuklo Study
The Wall Street Journal 2009 May 19
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124269191262732683.html
Full text:
Sen. Chuck Grassley is investigating the matter of a former Army surgeon who allegedly used questionable data in a study of a bone-growth protein in soldiers with serious leg injuries.
Sen. Grassley (R., Iowa), who has in recent years focused on the ties of doctors to drug and medical-device companies, is looking into the circumstances surrounding a study by Timothy R. Kuklo of the bone-growth product, called Infuse, made by Medtronic Inc.
Dr. Kuklo, who now is on staff at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, formerly was a surgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Walter Reed officials said last week that Dr. Kuklo forged the signatures of purported co-authors on the study. The Walter Reed officials also said that data in the study were based on “falsified information,” and that the numbers in the study didn’t comport with its own numbers about soldiers’ wartime injuries. Dr. Kuklo didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday evening.
Sen. Grassley sent letters about the matter to Walter Reed, Washington University, Medtronic and the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. That journal published the study last year, and then, earlier this year, retracted it. Washington University has said it is studying the matter.
Dr. Kuklo is a consultant to Medtronic, but the Minneapolis company said he didn’t have that affiliation at the time he worked on the study. Medtronic declined to disclose any other information about his consultancy.
Sen. Grassley wrote to the editor of the bone journal that “apparently, the article had been rejected previously by another journal and Dr. Kuklo presented the data publicly on several other occasions.” Medtronic said last week that it didn’t depend on the study for any government regulatory approvals.
