The University of Utah is paying $950,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that one of its doctors falsified data in a federally funded research project - and the doctor is retracting data published in scientific journals.
The settlement was reached with the U.S. Justice Department in a suit that alleged Dr. John L. Ninnemann falsely reported to the National Institutes of Health his research results on the causes of immune system suppression after burn injuries.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said the falsification occurred when Nin-ne-mann received NIH grants at the University of Utah from 1981 to 1984 and at the University of California from 1984 to 1988.
The University of California also paid $625,000 to settle the suit.
The Justice Department alleged that the University of Utah was aware of Ninnemann's falsifications following a 1983 internal probe but characterized problems as sloppy research instead of intentional falsification.
The government alleged that the NIH relied on Utah's false representations to permit Ninnemann to transfer his grant from Utah to California in 1984 - which it said made Utah liable for funding he continued to receive in California.
The government said California was also liable because it failed to closely monitor Ninnemann's work as it had promised.
The suit was originally filed in 1989 by J. Thomas Condie, a former assistant to Ninnemann at the University of Utah, under legal provisions in the False Claims Act that allow citizens on behalf of the government to sue parties alleged to have defrauded it, and to share in any awards.
The government later took over the suit.
Of the total $1.575 million settlement from the two universities, NIH will receive $1.03 million, Condie will receive $311,100 and $255,000 will reimburse Condie for attorney fees and other costs.
According to the Justice Department, Ninnemann signed a separate agreement with the Health and Human Services Department's Office of Research Integrity to send letters of retraction and correction to the scientific journals.
The two universities also agreed to correct deficiencies identified by the federal government in their practices and procedures for addressing scientific misconduct.