A study showing that the anti-malaria drug touted by President Trump, hydroxychloroquine, harmed COVID-19 patients is likely based on fabricated data.
An investigation by the Guardian found that the study, published in the Lancet (a prestigious medical journal), relied on data from a company called Surgisphere that appears to be highly suspect. The Lancet released an “expression of concern” about the study during the investigation.
The study found that COVID-19 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had an increased risk of death and heart problems and was cited to criticize Trump’s promotion of the drug. It used a sample of 96,032 people from 671 hospitals on six continents. But it is unclear how Surgisphere obtained that data.
Surgisphere was founded in 2008 by vascular surgeon Sapan Desai, who is also the co-author of the Lancet study. Desai claims Surgisphere has 11 employees. The company’s marketing executive appears to be a pornographic model and event hostess, while its science editor appears to be a science fiction author.
The question is how Surgisphere managed to compile such a massive dataset in such a short period of time and with so few employees. The Guardian stated that it is unclear “how the company was able to put in place data-sharing agreements from so many hospitals worldwide, including those with limited technology, and to reconcile different languages and coding systems, all while staying within the regulatory, data-protection, and ethical rules of each country.”
Peter Ellis, the chief data scientist of Nous Group, an international management consultancy that does data integration projects for government departments, told the Guardian that Surgisphere “was almost certainly a scam … There’s no evidence online of [Surgisphere] having any analytical software earlier than a year ago. It takes months to get people to even look into joining these databases, it involves network review boards, security people, and management. It just doesn’t happen with a sign-up form and a conversation.”
Hydroxychloroquine became a household name when Trump touted it as a possible treatment for COVID-19. He recently said that he’d completed a preventative hydroxychloroquine regime. The Lancet study prompted the World Health Organization to cease its trials of the drug and France to ban its use. Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the lead members of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, declared hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective in treating COVID-19.
Two other recent studies of COVID-19 used Surgisphere data. A New England Journal of Medicine study found that common heart medications did not result in harm to COVID-19 patients. The NEJM has also released a statement of concern. The other study was published online in the Social Science Research Network e-library and found that the drug ivermectin reduced mortality in severely ill COVID-19 patients. It prompted the Peruvian government to include the drug in its national treatment guidelines. Desai was a co-author in both studies.
The Lancet study had three co-authors in addition to Desai. They are conducting an independent audit of the data.
