Six Years After Complaints, OHRP Finds Claims of Violations in UCLA Research ‘Unproven’
Three serious complaints that a University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) investigator violated human research protections—including allegedly not reporting study-related injuries—are unfounded, according to the HHS Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). As described in a Nov. 21 determination letter posted online, OHRP contacted UCLA about the complaints in February 2017, although it is not clear when they were received. UCLA responded the following month. The parents of a person involved in spinal cord function research said the UCLA principal investigator (PI) caused or may have caused injuries, did not provide appropriate monitoring, did not provide treatment as promised, nor notify the institutional review board of the injuries.
However, OHRP said, “documentation provided by UCLA, the PI and an independent physician determined that the participant’s injuries and associated pain were unrelated to the research procedures,” which meant that complaints were unfounded. Without offering a reason for the delay, Lisa Buchanan, director of OHRP’s Division of Oversight, said officials “regret the amount of time it has taken us to respond.” The UCLA document is only the second OHRP determination letter posted this year.