The European Commission has ordered Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) to stop seven international studies funded by Brussels due to fr
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.
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From a short search on Duckduckgo it looks like Percuros was involved in a Theranos-like operation, though certainly not as big. It was not only active in the Netherlands, although it is/was (it no longer has a website) based in the country.
What the LUMC is guilt of is negligence, not research fraud.