After suspecting manipulated results in clinical trials for simufilam, an Alzheimer's drug, by Hoau-Yan Wang, PhD, a neuroscience professor at the City College of New York, the City University of New York announced Oct. 27 it is conducting an investigation into the professor's research process. While that investigation is ongoing, the investigation into Dr. Wang’s research is on hold, a spokesperson confirmed to Becker's.
"[A]ny finding regarding allegations of research misconduct must be reliable and credible," the statement from the City University of New York reads. "Because questions regarding the confidentiality and integrity of this investigation have been raised, CUNY will stay the underlying inquiry into the allegations regarding Dr. Wang’s research until such time as the University completes a comprehensive investigation of the process."
Questions about the research initially led to a formal investigation into the work by a committee from CUNY.
The committee's report alleged that there were errors in the research and accused Dr. Wang of misconduct. It was published publicly in Science Oct. 12.
"It appears likely that no primary data and no research notebooks pertaining to the 31 allegations exist. It is for this reason that it was not possible for this committee to objectively determine how figures were created from the experiments described in the publications cited in the allegations," the 50-page committee report reads.
Since no final action has been taken as a result of the investigation at this time, CUNY leadership noted it will not comment further on the research in question.