A Medical Student’s Call for Action Against Research Misconduct
By Eden Almasude,
The Hastings Center
| 06. 03. 2014
Untitled Document
According to the KMSP report for which I was interviewed, in 2007 a psychiatric research team led by Dr. Stephen Olson enrolled a mentally ill young man identified as Robert into a clinical trial for the experimental antipsychotic drug bifeprunox. Robert told KMSP that he was incompetent to consent, and that the psychiatric team used the threat of a significant medical bill to pressure him into the study. Despite Robert’s concerns about the safety of the drug, which was not FDA-approved, researchers minimized the study risks. Dr. Olson specifically noted in his clinical record that he told Robert that “enough patients have been treated to be more sure of its safety.”
Soon after Robert entered the study, the FDA rejected bifeprunox for marketing approval. Within months the sponsor of the trial, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, stopped all research after bifeprunox was linked to the death of a study subject in Europe due to liver failure. There is no record that Robert was ever informed of these developments.
Robert’s condition worsened and he began having abdominal pain so severe that he...
Related Articles
By Jallicia A. Jolly, Sydney Curtis and Nicole Sessions, Ms. Magazine | 10.17.2025
Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk of “moral decay” and see low birth rates as a threat to the future of humanity. In the mainstream media...
By Matthew Ormseth and Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times | 10.02.2025
The father of some 22 children discovered by Arcadia police in May also owns a property in El Monte where authorities found evidence of illegal gambling and drug activity, court records show.
Guojun Xuan, 65, told detectives all but two...
By Katherine Bourzac, Nature | 09.25.2025
A judge in New York rejected a request on 23 September to disqualify the use of cutting-edge DNA sequencing as evidence in a case against an alleged serial killer. The ruling paves the way for a type of DNA analysis...
By Emma McDonald Kennedy
| 09.25.2025
In the leadup to the 2024 election, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to make IVF more accessible. He made the commitment central to his campaign, even referring to himself as the “father of IVF.” In his first month in office, Trump issued an executive order promising to expand IVF access. The order set a 90-day deadline for policy recommendations for “lowering costs and reducing barriers to IVF,” although it didn’t make any substantive reproductive healthcare policy changes.
The response to the...