Subject: U. S. Investigation Of AIDS Scientist Raises Questions 
Date: Published: 8/15/91 (61 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Health:
    U. S. Investigation
    Of AIDS Scientist
    Raises Questions
    ----
    By Marilyn Chase
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    A confidential government investigation of U. S. AIDS
 researcher Robert Gallo has become public and touched off
 controversies that threaten the viability of an AIDS
 bloodtest patent and the reputation of the National
 Institutes of Health's internal ethics body.
    The Office of Scientific Integrity, NIH's in-house
 investigative arm, has been struggling to resolve questions
 about whether Dr. Gallo misappropriated a sample of the
 acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus from his French
 counterparts at Pasteur Institute who first discovered it, or
 whether he misrepresented his findings.  Dr. Gallo himself
 recently admitted that the virus identified and published as
 his own discovery was in fact from the French sample.
    This week, the journal Science said the OSI draft report
 currently spares Dr. Gallo from the severest censure but
 lambasts his top virologist Mikulas Popovic for
 misrepresenting data and for creating mixtures of the virus
 that could have contributed to the French-American mixup.
 Drs. Gallo and Popovic defended their data and demanded the
 OSI report be withdrawn.
    Internal memos by NIH officials have questioned the impact
 of the OSI draft report on the U. S. patent covering the AIDS
 bloodtest, Science reports.  Royalties from that bloodtest are
 shared equally by the U. S. and France under a 1987 settlement
 that declared the antagonists to be co-inventors.  But
 recently, French researcher Luc Montagnier, of the Pasteur
 Institute, indicated he may challenge the patent.
    Of broader significance than the AIDS wars is the question
 whether NIH can effectively investigate itself on matters of
 scientific ethics.  NIH Director Bernadine Healy has
 criticized OSI's handling of the Gallo probe, asking the
 report be rewritten to purge it of "editorial" comment, and
 to ensure due process.
    Finally, there is a fairness question raised by the OSI
 draft report's apparent attempt to shift blame from Dr. Gallo
 to a subordinate, Dr. Popovic.
    In a detailed rebuttal in Science, Dr. Popovic denied he
 is guilty of scientific misconduct, and said his efforts to
 mass-produce virus were dictated by the urgency of creating a
 test to protect the U. S. blood supply.
    Dr. Gallo, for his part, said in an interview yesterday
 said the OSI report is "glaringly incompetent" and based on
 misunderstanding of the facts.  "Our data is correct and
 reproducible."

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