1. Dr. Ranjit Chandra's Patented Multi-Vitamins
Gregory Mountain
Kieran Mullarney
Kristopher Murray
Christopher Osbun
Shreya Patel

2. Facts of the Case
Dr. Ranjit K. Chandra worked at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada for 27 years
Dr. Chandra published nearly 200 scientific papers during his career
In 2001, Nutrition published a paper by Dr. Chandra in which he suggested a multivitamin formula that strengthened cognitive function in the elderly
Dr. Chandra retired from Memorial in 2002
Accusations about the validity of his multivitamin paper and later his entire body of work began to arise
In 2005, Nutrition retracted Dr. Chandra’s multivitamin paper

3. "Effect of Vitamin and Trace-Element Supplementation on Cognitive Function in Elderly Subjects" Ranjit Kumar Chandra, M.D.
Dr. Chandra hypothesized that consumption of adequate amounts of micronutrients improved cognitive function in those over the age of 50.
Chandra conducted a random study of 96 individuals over the age of 65 who were split into a placebo group and a group that received the vitamin supplement for 1 year
Dr. Chandra’s data suggests that there was a significant reduction in vitamin deficiencies such as vitamins A, B6, C, β-carotene, iron and zinc and that there was a significant improvement of most of the cognitive function tests in the supplement group.
Dr. Chandra wrote that the subjects who showed deficient blood levels of 1+ nutrients showed lower scores on all cognitive tests.

4. Doubts in validity
Beginning in 2003, accusations began to circulate about the validity of Dr. Chandra’s multivitamin paper. Some viewed Dr. Chandra’s data as ‘too good’ and accused him of fabricating results.
Dr. Chandra failed to produce raw data
Some medical journals went so far as to call Dr. Chandra’s entire body of work into question.

5. Patented Formula
The multivitamin formula that Dr. Chandra developed was licensed to Boston-based Javaan Corporation and is available under the name Javaan 50.

6. Investigation
John Strawbridge, Memorial University’s director of faculty relations: "The university is not a watchdog- We are an enabler- and we've done our job, I think.”
British Medical Journal’s editor, Richard Smith, explained that this may be due to a conflict of interest. The university would not want to discover that one of its own employees had been involved in such misconduct.

7. Investigation
There were political issues in finding regulatory agencies to investigate Dr. Chandra’s work.
Many of the journals which have published Dr. Chandra’s work fight the idea of investigating his previous work…
Secretary of the World Association of Medical Editors, Pritpal S. Tamber, said, “There’s no real training for this, and properly investigating claims of misconduct is incredibly time-consuming, expensive, and requires a certain expertise.”

8. Breached Ethical Issues and Values
Making scientific claims without supporting data or any conclusive research or findings
Fraud in the use of grant money
Money intended for research resulting in the betterment of society
Benefits of research can only be utilized if sources keep a credible status and remain ethical in their dealings so that their research can be used to inform and to foster further investigation.

9. Breached Ethical Issues and Values
Improper representation of data
Fabrication of data

10. Supporting Evidence of Allegations
Multiple scientific journals and 3 independent US scientists have raised questions about the validity of Chandra’s study.
Never properly addressed
Raw data never provided
Improbable methods and statistics
Measurements out of normal range (impossible)
Disappeared off the grid for some time after allegations were presented

11. Actions Resulting in Breach of Ethics
Was the study really conducted?
Claims that the multi-vitamins reverse memory loss
No co-author on his publication

12. Circumstances and Considerations
Stands by his methods and findings
Pressure to continue to publish significant scientific findings
Reputation
Keep grants & funding

13. Consequences of Scientific Misconduct
Institutional Level
Dr. Chandra's career
Reputations of Chandra, Memorial University, Nutrition were tarnished
Deeply ingrained in knowledge base
Investigation and remediation are expensive

14. Consequences of Scientific Misconduct
Consumer Level
Many seniors took the vitamin thinking it would work
Now don't trust other medicines they need

15. Consequences of Scientific Misconduct
Societal Level
Retractions rates have skyrocketed
Furthered mistrust of scientific community

16. Recommendations To prevent the violation of ethics:
Chandra: Do ethical research (don’t make up data)
Memorial University: Should hold researchers accountable
Nutrition Journal: Should have found same issues BMJ did

17. Recommendations To prevent the violation of ethics:
BMJ: Instead of just rejecting paper, do something about suspected fraudulent research
Scientific Community: Develop standard way to deal with cases of fraud like this with harsh punishments

18. Preventing further incidents
Researchers should...
be ethical, and also educated about what is and what isn't allowed.
hold co-workers accountable.
Journals should...
pay attention to plausibility of data, and if they find something suspicious, do more than just reject paper.

19. Preventing further incidents
Universities and Employers should...
take allegations of fraud seriously and have a set way to handle situation.
educate about fraud and have harsh punishments.
Funders of Research should...
hold researchers accountable by retracting funds or making it more difficult to get grants.

20. Why Should We Care?
It is important to know about this case today because knowing about the consequences of fraud can help prevent it in the future.
Cases like this make the scientific community look bad, and can have serious and broad consequences.

21. References http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195176/