Firm Settles Allegations It Sold NIH Lab Inadequate Mice

An Indiana-based laboratory supply company has agreed to pay $7.2 million to settle government claims that it sold mice that did not meet federal researchers' specifications, prosecutors in Baltimore said yesterday. The government contended that the company failed to disclose repeated tests showing that a rodent strain it provided under contracts it held with the National Institute on Aging had been compromised, according to a settlement agreement. The research center, in Bethesda, is under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health.