By Ben Sutherly The Columbus Dispatch Sunday March 10, 2013 6:52 AM Research fraud, faculty infighting and federal lawsuits have plagued Ohio State Universitys pharmacy college in recent years. One prominent researcher, who is retiring after disputes with the colleges leadership, even called the working environment there dishonorable. Our college is just so messed up, said the pharmacy professor, Jessie Lai-Sim Au. Since 2007, two pharmacy college professors have sued Ohio State in federal court, alleging retaliation and discrimination, and at least four professors and a graduate student have been accused of research misconduct or misuse of grant funds. This is a lot to be going on in a single college, said Scott Jaschik, editor of the website Inside Higher Ed and a former editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. He noted that hes unfamiliar with the details of the pharmacy colleges cases. Research misconduct is very serious, and universities do not want to be known as places with multiple research misconduct cases period. In an interview with The Dispatch, the colleges dean, Robert Brueggemeier, said the university is placing a greater emphasis on research ethics, including a class on the topic that will be required of students and … Continue reading →

Former employees of a Framingham compounding pharmacy at the center of a national meningitis outbreak are claiming the New England Compounding Center brazenly broke the rules. Darrel Clark is one of more than 700 people nationwide sickened after receiving a contaminated steroid injection manufactured by NECC. "I feel they're criminals. It's like they gave out poison knowing it was poison but didn't care because they were making money, he said. Forty-eight people have died, and Clarks family worried the 50-year-old father would be one of them. For the first time in the six months since the fungal meningitis outbreak, those who worked inside the compounding pharmacy are speaking out. Joe Connolly, a former technician, told 60 Minutes, The underlying factor is that the company got greedy and over extended. And we got sloppy and something happened. Connolly says mold was found in the clean room a dozen times during a span of three years. NECC was supposed to manufacture drugs for individual patients, but Connolly says a month before the first death he warned his supervisor, Something's going to happen, something's going to get missed and we're going to get shut down. We weren't compounding any more. We were manufacturing. … Continue reading →