Policy

Clinical trial coordinator debarred by FDA for, um, crappy behavior

In 2008, former DePaul employee Wesley A. McQuerry used his own fecal matter in a drug study, creating fictitious patients and then pocketing the cash earmarked for the trial participants.

poop_emoji_squareA clinical trial coordinator today was permanently debarred by the Food and Drug Administration today for some pretty, um, shitty behavior. To wit: In 2008, former DePaul employee Wesley A. McQuerry used his own fecal matter in a drug study, creating fictitious patients and then pocketing the cash earmarked for the trial participants.

Of course, this isn’t tremendously surprising – McQuerry received a three-year prison sentence in February 2015 for this behavior. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that McQuerry “created fake patients, used his own stool samples, faked lab work, forged doctors’ signatures and deposited more than 2,000 checks intended for participating patients into his own bank account.” The drug trial was meant to treat HIV-associated diarrhea.

According the Federal Register:

Specifically, between January and October 2008, Mr. McQuerry created fifteen to twenty fictional patients, whom he claimed were participants in the clinical trial. Mr. McQuerry falsified signatures of those patients on consent forms and falsified doctors’ signatures on medical evaluations for those patients. He provided his own blood, stool, and EKG results, which he claimed were provided by the fictional patients. He also transmitted false data and information to the administrator regarding these fictional patients and made and caused to be made false statements regarding their participation in the study and attendance at office visits, all of which he knew would be provided to the pharmaceutical company and to FDA.

Stunningly, this isn’t McQuerry’s first brush with the law: He embezzled more than $300,000 from DePaul University between 1999 and 2001, the Sun-Times reports. And though McQuerry only pocketed $2,300, these actions cost the pharmaceutical company conducting the trial more than $200,000.

“Any falsified data cannot be used to approve the drug, but the company still paid and they have to incur that loss,” Kenny Shade, an officer in the division of enforcement of regulatory affairs at FDA, told Retraction Watch

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