Leiden hospital accused of research fraud in seven international studies

The European Commission has ordered Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) to stop seven international studies funded by Brussels due to fraud. The Leiden hospital seems to have fallen victim to malpractice by the company Pecuros B.V., but a lack of control and supervision by the hospital allowed it, Omroep West reports based on internal documents and correspondence.

According to the broadcaster, Pecuros B.V. claimed considerable amounts in Brussels funding for “researchers” participating in several projects at LUMC. But the persons involved do not appear in the Leiden hospital’s systems. LUMC said that an internal investigation earlier this year showed that some hospital staff remember seeing some of these people, but they had no access cards and no computer accounts at the hospital.

European investigators also found no evidence that the people supposedly sent to the LUMC were at all qualified to conduct research. They have also never reported on their activities. The LUMC did not check up on this. According to Omroep West, the LUMC forwarded the timesheets submitted by Pecuros to Brussels without checking them.

When the fraud came to light, the LUMC launched an internal investigation. It found that an email exchange Pecuros sent to the European investigators did not exist in the LUMC’s mail system. They did find the same mail exchange but with different recipients, which seems to indicate that Pecuros forged the emails sent to the investigators.

The European Commission concluded that LUMC committed fraud. “The fraud is structural, and the risk of recurrence is high,” the European Research Executive Agency (REA) said about the hospital in a provisional judgment. The European Commission ordered the LUMC to stop the seven involved studies while the investigation continues.

The LUMC told Omroep West that the letters from the European Commission shocked it. It said it fully cooperates with the EU investigation and also launched internal investigations. Disciplinary measures have been taken against three employees.

The hospital cut ties with Pecuros and will refund the research money if the European Commission asks it to, the LUMC said. A spokesperson stressed that the LUMC does much more research with European money than the seven projects the European Commission told it to halt.