Group Hit Over Suspect Funding (Japan)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will halt funding to a group conducting clinical studies on a drug to treat chronic heart failure after it was found to be "double-dipping" from two sources against ministry rules. The research group took both grants-in-aid for scientific research from the health ministry and funds from the Japan Heart Foundation, which is under the ministry's jurisdiction. The group will reportedly be penalized by not being eligible for grants-in-aid for the next two years. Health ministry rules ban researchers from taking both government grants-in-aid and funds from other bodies for the same study at the same time. The research group, headed by cardiovascular expert Akira Kitabatake, an honorary professor of Hokkaido University, is researching the proper dosage of Daiichi Sankyo's drug carvedilol, a beta blocker used to treat mild to moderate congestive heart failure. Although Kitabatake asked 30 to 40 pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the foundation to fund the study, only Daiichi did so. (Click here for more