Alzheimer’s Drug Researcher on “Indefinite” Leave After Whistleblowers Find Fraud

With PrEP drugs causing healthy people to lose their teeth and develop kidney failure, is anyone checking the legitimacy of THAT drug research?

The co-director of the University of Southern California’s federally funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, who has been under investigation since mid-2023 for scientific fraud, has been placed on “indefinite” leave from his positions at USC, according to a new report in Science magazine. (1)

Researcher Berislav Zlokovic was responsible for research into a drug named 3K3A-APC, which Zlokovic and colleagues claim can cross the blood-brain barrier—few drugs do—in patients with stroke and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The first indications of potential fraud came to light during a clinical trial of 3K3A-APC in stroke patients; meanwhile, Zlokovic was pushing for a trial of 3K3A-APC in AD patients. (2)

When an independent group of whistleblowers examined the Phase 2 clinical trial treating stroke patients with 3K3A-APC, they found that treated patients had worse outcomes than those who’d received a placebo—a fact that was not disclosed. This was only one of the allegations of misrepresenta…