4 UC San Diego Researchers Are Cleared in Grant Probe

Federal auditors have cleared four UC San Diego scientists of wrongdoing in an investigation into allegations of mishandling of federal research grants valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

A spokesman for the National Institutes of Health said Thursday that the three-month probe had found no basis for the charges against Dr. Ivor Royston and Dr. Mark Green of the UCSD Cancer Center and Dr. John Hansbrough and Steven Boyce of the county burn center.

“Nothing has been found by the NIH inquiry to support the allegations of any improper actions on the part of any of the four investigators,” Donald Ralbovsky, a spokesman for the federal research agency, said in a statement from NIH’s Maryland headquarters.

Ralbovsky said the only questionable finding concerned “a bookkeeping thing involving $7,000” handled by the county burn center headed by Hansbrough. However, he said that discrepancy “has been completely resolved to the satisfaction of NIH.”

UC San Diego officials declined detailed comment on the findings Thursday, saying they had not yet received copies of the investigators’ findings. Harold Ticho, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said: “If the report is true, I must say I’m pleased.”

Came to Light in September

The investigation came to light in September when the auditors arrived in La Jolla and began looking into five grants made to the four scientists and into two San Diego firms, Idec Inc. and Clonetics, to which the researchers have ties.

Neither university officials nor the NIH ever detailed publicly the anonymous allegations that prompted the probe. However, the charges appeared to concern the relationship between the researchers’ publicly funded research and their private companies.

Royston, an associate professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the UC San Diego Cancer Center, is a co-founder of Idec Inc., a firm developing monoclonal antibodies to treat cancers and disorders of the immune system.

Green is director of the UCSD Cancer Center and a clinical adviser to Idec.

According to Idec officials, Royston has received federal funding for human trials of a type of treatment called anti-idiotype antibodies. Idec fabricates the antibodies and supplies them free of charge to the university for Royston’s study.

Idec hopes eventually to market the product. Human trials of the product--a prerequisite for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for sale--are being conducted at UCSD, Stanford University and in Seattle.

Hansbrough is an associate professor of surgery and director of the burn center, located at UCSD Medical Center. Officials at Clonetics, which is developing synthetic skin for burn patients, have declined to confirm published reports that Hansbrough was a member of the board of directors until last August.

Boyce, an adjunct professor of surgery, was a co-founder of Clonetics in 1984.

Boyce declined Thursday to comment on the NIH’s conclusions, saying he would wait to see the report. Hansbrough, Green and Royston could not be reached. William Rastetter, the president of Idec, said he was “delighted that the whole issue is resolved.”

The grants under scrutiny included a grant to Royston to develop monoclonal antibodies for cancer detection and treatment; two grants to Green for cancer and leukemia research, and two grants to Hansbrough involving trauma and burn patients.

Ralbovsky of NIH said the agency’s involvement in the matter has now concluded. Leslie Franz, a spokeswoman for the UCSD School of Medicine, said the university has not launched its own investigation of the charges.