GSK Fires China R&D Head

GlaxoSmithKline has dismissed Jiangwu Zang, the company’s head of R&D in China after discovering that a study by some of its Chinese scientists contained misrepresentation of data. According to a company statement, three other individuals have been placed on administrative leave, and another employee has resigned. The decision follows an investigation about a scientific paper published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2010 involving preclinical research into multiple sclerosis. Mr. Zang was one of the authors of the paper.
 
“Regretfully, our investigation has established that certain data in the paper were indeed misrepresented,” according to a company statement. “We’ve shared our conclusion that the paper should be retracted and are in the process of asking all of the authors to sign a statement to that effect, according to Nature Medicine’s procedure.”
 
The study examined the role of a protein in multiple sclerosis and involved early-stage research that did not directly involve patients, although some blood samples were used. However, the work did inform GSK’s development of an experimental MS drug, known as GSK2618960, which has reached initial testing in healthy volunteers. The early clinical tests of the product have now been suspended as a precaution, although there is no signal of a safety issue with the medicine, according to a company spokesman.