Amgen Pulls Grizzly Bear Research After Finding a Lone Scientist Manipulated Data
September 2, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Amgen has been forced to pull a diabetes and obesity study featuring grizzly bears after a researcher was found to have manipulated some of the data, the Wall Street Journal reported this morning.
Bears are known to pack on the pounds as they prepare for winter, yet do not succumb to many health issues related to weight gain, such as heart issues or diabetes. A study published last year explained how the metabolism of bears adjusted to annual hibernation due to a protein described in the study as a “dimmer switch” that allowed bears to adjust blood sugar levels during their long winter slumbers.
But now, California-based Amgen said after it reviewed some of the data from the study, the biotech company found manipulations that made the results look stronger, the Journal reported. “Amgen holds our scientists to the highest standards of ethical research. Amgen has internal policies and practices in place to prevent and detect this type of activity, and we deeply regret this circumstance. We extend our sincere apologies to the scientific community,” the company said in a statement.
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The paper has since been retracted and the scientist who was at the heart of the data manipulation has been terminated. In the “Cell Matters” article, the researchers found that bears control how much of the sugars in food their bodies store for energy through a hormone. As the bears gain weight in preparation for winter hibernation, the animals are more sensitive to insulin, then, during hibernation, the bears switch off their natural responsiveness to insulin, the original study found.
Amgen’s study was in partnership with Washington State University, which has a grizzly bear research center.
Lynn Nelson, a cardiology professor at Washington State and an author on the paper, told the Journal she was going to repeat the research to see if she could confirm the original findings.
“We did nothing wrong, and we’re still going to pursue the hibernation physiology in bears because we think it’s an important thing to do,” she told the Journal.
There is no indication if the bear research will have any impact on an early-stage trial for AMG-876, a fusion protein for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
While Amgen may not continue with the bear research, the company is moving forward with several drugs that treat health issues associated with obesity, including high cholesterol. The company’s new anti-cholesterol drug Repatha, a PSCK9 inhibitor, met final regulatory approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month. In Phase III trials, Repatha lowered the bad cholesterol by about 60 percent and decreased the rate of cardiovascular events, including heart attack, heart failure leading to hospitalization and death, by approximately 50 percent. The effect of Repatha on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has not yet been determined.