MSK Pavilion comments for task force https://onstealinghope.
Ethics and Safety Concerns at High Profile Cancer Center (MSKCC)
The disingenuousness that emanates from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is intermittently palpable.
This blog is not published by any current affiliate of MSKCC and does not imply that one should not seek appropriate medical attention from a qualified physician (at MSKCC or elsewhere). It does discuss egregious Conflicts of Interest/Ethics and Safety concerns at the Institute.You or a loved one may have a cancer scare while the forces of commerce (profit and/or potential profit) may influence enrollment in a clinical trial (in variance with candidate efficacy). People who are guilty of such craven self servitude clearly know better.
We are not stating and have not stated that there is or has been a systemic initiative at Sloan to enroll patients in clinical trials of compounds whose efficacy is known to be suspect. We are and have stated that there have been piecemeal instances where people who clearly know better drop their guard and act in a cravenly self-serving manner.
Sloan does very important work. We want Sloan to be our Hero, our Beacon, our City on a Hill, e.g. as in the case of attempting to cure leukemia, with cautious optimism:
an initiative dear to the author of this comment, as his parents’ first child succumbed to complications from childhood leukemia following treatment at Sloan.
Sadly, cancer is big business. When Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) and Ethics issues are rightfully brought forth Sloan merely "conducts its own investigation", conjures and synchronizes its cover stories and attempts to intimidate those who rightfully bring forth concerns.
Sloan’s proposed new building (announced 03/2023) on York Avenue is adjacent to the Rockefeller Research Laboratories. Sloan built that laboratory and knowingly did not install ductwork controls in a building strewn with toxins and whose windows could not be opened. Sloan misstated the facts (lied) following a chlorine/bromine gas permeation event that required an fdny response and building evacuation. Experimental Reaction conditions have been compromised at Sloan due to faulty infrastructure (e.g. cross contamination/recirculation of expunged gases in fume hoods), there was concern that systemic water leaks through live electric light fixtures, in addition to being a safety hazard, were from purified water distribution conduits (if this were true, the credibility of aqueous experimental reactions in the building could be impeached, compromising Sloan’s IP/Intellectual Property portfolio).
The disingenuousness that emanates from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is intermittently palpable.
A Chief Financial Officer [Gutnick, 2019 salary (available along with other MSKCC top earners on line at
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/html-page/767716
], 1.5 million] of MSKCC has stated (paraphrased): Sloan is … pursuing a systemic approach to reducing expenses and increasing revenues. … this effort involves … policy decisions that seek to strike a … balance between providing service and squandering resources. One example of this is discouraging terminally ill patients from seeking initial treatment or second opinions from the cancer center … the admission of such patients is counterproductive for a facility like Sloan-Kettering.
https://onstealinghope.blogspot.com/
Memorial Sloan Kettering paid $1.4 million in severance to three former execs in 2020. The largest payment went to Patricia Skarulis [2019 salary, greater than 1 million], MSK's longtime chief information officer, who the tax form says left in 2019. Avice Meehan [2019 salary 595,000], the system's former chief communication officer, also got a payout.
Claus Jensen [2019 salary 552,000], chief digital officer and head of technology, had a curiously short tenure at Sloan before absconding.
Atti Razi, also had a curiously short tenure as CIO at Sloan
In fy 2021 mskcc received 236 million in covid relief from the US govt [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding]. ...
in fy2022 mskcc purchased 500 million in nyc prime real estate, including in a building that formerly housed Madoff’s iniquities.
https://nypost.com/2022/09/06/memorial-sloan-kettering-scoops-up-piece-of-lipstick-building/
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/09/13/sloan-kettering-pays-185m-for-ues-medical-center/
Sloan affiliates have been privileged biotech / pharma insiders:
https://ariadwindfall.blogspot.com
Ed Mahoney [2019 salary greater than 1 million] is the Senior VP, Facilities Management. It is members of the Facilities Team that attempt to leverage (threaten) employees who rightfully bring forth Facilities and EHS shortcomings that stand to effect and are likely effecting employee and community safety, and stand to impeach the credibility of reaction conditions of experiments conducted at Sloan. Sloan’s slogan has been: MSKCC, The Best Cancer Care Anywhere … apparently, as long as it’s consistent with Sloan’s revenue stream and/or the potential stock portfolio of powerful employees. Times are trying and hard for everyone.
When the author of this note worked at Sloan he was instructed by a non-clinician administrative manager to embargo known information relative to the availability of clinical trial candidates created by competitors and tested at Sloan, when the clinical trial on the candidate created at Sloan had not yet commenced. When asked for clarification, and if the non-clinician was instructing him to deceive desperate cancer patients or their proxies he was told “ours are better than theirs”. When this was reported to a colleague researcher at Sloan the author of this note was told that although that tack was [reprehensible] it was technically not illegal, but since Sloan could lose their license to conduct clinical trials any report of this incident would be denied. Subsequently the author of this note was told by another research colleague that after the clinical trial on the in house candidate had commenced, that the Principal Investigator attempted to leverage the clinician overseeing the trial to continue enrollment in the phase (in variance with the clinician’s better judgment relative to drug candidate efficacy). Large milestone dependent royalty payments contingent upon completion vs. cessation of a clinical trial phase were in play. The clinician overseeing the clinical trial has since moved, to another state. Ed Mahoney and Pat Skarulis were directly involved in covering up these incidents.
We are not stating and have not stated that there is or has been a systemic initiative at Sloan to enroll patients in clinical trials of compounds whose efficacy is known to be suspect. We are and have stated that there have been piecemeal instances where people who clearly know better drop their guard and act in a cravenly self-serving manner.
The tech officers who took over after Skarulis (Jensen and Razi) would likely have known about any attempts to purge digital records relative to EHS and ethics concerns at Sloan.
Cancer Health Disparities abatement initiatives will hopefully allow constituents of demographics who previously would only difficultly access high level cancer therapeutics to do so more easily
The confluence of safety concerns/infractions/systemic and otherwise at MSKCC fostered by MSKCC's Facilities Team and their Confederates (Contractors, Organizations) does affect/effect employee / community safety and stands to affect and has likely effected (and could impeach the efficacy of) reaction conditions relative to clinical trial candidates created and tested at Sloan and elsewhere.
You or a loved one may have a cancer scare while the forces of commerce (profit and/or potential profit) may influence enrollment in a clinical trial (in variance with candidate efficacy). People who are guilty of such craven self servitude clearly know better.
Sloan has a not for profit status, but it is not St. Judes.
MSKCCheats.
With a new administration (Professor Vickers), Sloan deserves to move ahead with this initiative. We trust Dr. Vickers and wish him well. However, we must be w(e)ary, and proceed with caution.
Sloan received ~ $ 236 million in Covid relief in 2021, purchased ~ $ 500 million in prime NYC real estate in 2022, [will they write the difference off as a loss [while wordsmithing it as "reducing leased space" (i.e. real estate purchases funded by Covid relief taxpayer dollar$)]?], has conflict of interest / bioethics issues, dispatched ~ 300+ selfless employees (apparently per word on the street including a pharmacist within a year of retirement) [wasn’t the purpose of Covid-relief so businesses could maintain employees?], plans to displace a few hundred faculty (housing) and replace that housing with what cb8m refers to as the MSK Pavilion, which is adjacent to a lab Sloan built and knowingly didn’t install ductwork controls in, misstated the facts (lied) on multiple occasions relative to environmental health and safety (EHS) issues, including those that affect employee and community safety and reaction conditions (that stand to impeach the credibility of the research conducted at Sloan, including reaction conditions for translational [lab to clinic] initiatives)
https://www.beckershospital...
New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center saw a swing from a $235.1 operating gain in 2021 to a 2022 operating loss of $248.1 million.
In fy 2021 mskcc received 236 million in covid relief from the US govt [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding]. ...
https://www.fitchratings.co...
in fy2022 mskcc purchased 500 million in nyc prime real estate, including in a building that formerly housed Madoff’s iniquities.
https://www.crainsnewyork.c...
https://nypost.com/2022/09/...
https://therealdeal.com/new...
https://therealdeal.com/new...
236 - 500= -264
Once one-time costs were taken into consideration — reducing leased space [i.e. purchasing $500 million in prime NYC real estate after receiving ~ $236 million in Covid relief aid from the US gov’t?] and a reduction in the workforce [dispatching ~ 300 selfless employees who could have worked in the for profit sector?] "These efforts, including the one-time reorganization costs [see above?], will generate future savings and enable MSK to continue to provide excellent patient care," [which is sadly correlated with incumbent or potential revenue streams] the report said.
[comments added above in brackets]
Was the Covid relief a grant or loan? If a loan was it forgiven? So the US gov’t and our taxes helped pay for Sloan’s NYC prime real estate purchases? Weren't Covid aid abusers prosecuted for using Covid relief for luxury (and real estate) purchases?
https://www.justice.gov/opa...
https://www.justice.gov/opa...
Sloan’s recently re-kindled MSK Pavilion Initiative seeks to repurpose a space currently used for faculty housing as operating room space.
That building is adjacent to the Rockefeller Research Laboratories (RRL)
At RRL one lab was situated above an animal facility. MSKCC Facilities Management knowingly did not install ductwork controls in the building and there were chronic safety lapses relative to a cross contamination (including, but not limited to putrid smells that were not local to the floor, and high caliber researchers complaining of odors in fume hoods of chemicals not being experimented with). Employees were chronically exposed to airborne exudates from the animal facility in addition to the putrid odors emanating from the floor below. When complaints were lodged, Facilities would send an engineer who would smirk at complainants. Subsequently it was learned (from an outside contractor) that ductwork controls were never installed properly in RRL and after that the smirks from Facilities employees segued to sneers when safety concerns were lodged, while evaluations of those who rightfully reported EHS issues segued from being a “very capable employee” to “not being a team player” or worse. Multiple people on the floor experienced chronic breathing problems. There was a known cross contamination phenomena via fume hoods where researchers would smell chemicals that were not being worked on, on the floor or in the lab. During a chemical spill and permeation caused by MSK Facilities that required a building evacuation and FDNY response Safety accusingly stated “you didn’t call the fire department, did you”? [the FDNY response was due to an automatically triggered alarm] (they were more concerned with non addressment, than employee and community safety). An inaccurate assuagement statement understating the severity of the incident, signed by the head of Safety, but possibly ghost written by others was issued after the event. When the veracity of the inaccurate statement was rightfully challenged, a senior manager from MSKCC Facilities, warned that first hand witnesses to the event “upset a lot of people” when mentioning that OSHA would be contacted, and so safety concerns were eventually reported to OSHA … https://www.osha.gov/ords/i.... There were intermittent, yet chronic water leaks through live electrical light fixtures in drop ceilings. C-14 Chemistry laboratory Certificate of Fitness holder(s) were concerned about a spark, fire, or explosion hazard, yet when apprised by other researchers that this leak phenomena also occurred on other floors, given that we knew we could not trust the MSK Facilities team, it was realized there was a possibility that the leaks were from conduits that dispersed filtered water used somewhat ubiquitously for aqueous experiments. If that was true the credibility of filtered / purified water/aqueous reaction conditions, notwithstanding Bernoulli’s principle, would be compromised and possibly impeached, standing to affect Sloan’s Intellectual Property portfolio.
When intrepid cancer patients or their proxies contacted the lab following the publication in the lay press (the WSJ) information relative to research conducted at Sloan on a promising new drug possibility, the author of this comment was instructed by a non-clinician Administrative Manager (AM) to withhold/embargo known information relative to the availability of a clinical trial candidate created by a (Big Pharma) competitor and being tested at Sloan. The clinical trial on the in-house candidate had not yet started at Sloan. When the non clinician was asked to clarify her biologically challenged tack, the non clinician stated “ours are better than theirs”, a decision that was not hers to make. When this was reported to a research colleague the author of this comment was told that although the tack was morally wrong [reprehensible] it was technically not illegal. However, because Sloan could lose its license to conduct clinical trials the event would be swept under the rug. Subsequently, the author of this comment was told by another research colleague that the PI (Principal Investigator, a non-clinician) attempted to leverage a clinician overseeing the clinical trial for the by then commenced in-house candidate clinical trial to continue enrolling patients in variance with the clinician’ s intuition relative to drug candidate efficacy. Large milestone dependent (on completion vs cessation of a clinical trial phase) royalty payments were in play at the time. The clinical trial overseeing physician has since moved to another position, in another city. https://www.massgeneral.org....
The lab [whose non clinician AM attempted to instruct a coworker to embargo information of an external competitors clinical trial conducted at Sloan] applied for and received a special translational grant to help facilitate bringing the in-house candidate forward to the level of palatability of a biotech or big pharma partner. The NIH conduit for that grant was subsequently rewarded with SAB status with the biotech that picked up the in-house candidate.
https://dtp.cancer.gov/time...
Pat Skarilus and Ed Mahoney were involved in the non addressment of bioethics and environmental health and safety concerns at Sloan.
It is noted that Jensen and Razi had curiously short tenures as ctos (or whatever appellation the position was granted) post Skarulis. Any attempts to expunge forensically available digital evidence of EHS, or coi/bioethics anomalies and/or infractions would likely have been accomplished with the knowledge of the cto.
Claus Jensen [2019 salary 552,000], chief digital officer and head of technology, had a curiously short tenure at Sloan before absconding. https://www.fiercehealthcar...
Atti Razi, also had a curiously short tenure as CIO at Sloan https://www.beckershospital...
More recently … https://www.propublica.org/... ... members of Sloan’s leadership have exhibited poor judgment relative to conflict of interest / bioethics issues.
The Pathology chief … https://www.mskcc.org/cance... ... seemingly attempted to leverage the entire cumulative pathology intellectual property of Sloan in an ai company without input re sharing the earning potential with incumbent or past member pathologists. https://www.nytimes.com/201...
Sloan recently announced … https://www.mskcc.org/profi... ... that Anaeze Offodile II, MD, MPH, would assume the position of new Chief Strategy Officer (Effective 5/1/2023) a double board-certified physician with clinical expertise in oncologic reconstruction, a health services researcher with a focus on alternative payment models and care redesign, and a healthcare administrator with management experience in academia — leads strategy efforts and care transformation initiatives at MSK by continuing to develop the core infrastructure, management systems, and processes for enterprise strategy and business development.
The author of this comment cannot imagine anyone, given Sloan's nonpareil raison d'etre, objecting to the expansion of Sloan and even the repurposing of Covid aid to facilitate that initiative. The caveat is sadly that Sloan has not been an honest player relative to addressment of environmental health and safety and conflict of interest (coi) / bioethics issues, that the amount of "care" (both figuratively and literally) Sloan is willing to provide is correlated with incumbent and potential revenue streams. When bioethics / coi and EHS issues are rightfully brought forth, Sloan has a history of merely conjuring and synchronizing its thinly veiled cover stories. Be w(e)ary and proceed carefully.
We welcome Dr. Offodile and wish him well. We trust Dr. Vickers to lead from the front, and wish him well. It is hoped that with Sloan's expansions that members of demographics who previously would only difficultly access high tiered cancer care might be able to do so more easily.
Cb8 and the MSK Pavilion committee chairs have (and will be) apprised of these concerns, which are also noted here ... https://onstealinghope.blog....
We were first exposed to EHS lapses [cross contaminations (fume hoods and ducts), chronic breathing issues (ductwork controls never installed), water leaking through live electrical light fixtures (seemingly through the hot ballasts of fluourescent light fixtures [given that we knew ductwork controls were not installed, we were concerned about explosion hazards])] and concerns when attempting to address acute and/or chronic issues. We subsequently learned some of these were systemic, that Sloan knew about them and were aggressive relative to suppressing addressment and dissemination of information (even though dissemination could help solve the problems). relative to conflict of interest/bioethics issues, we can't imagine anyone not wishing Sloan well relative to fair profits earned correlated with brilliant and seminal work, but we expect them not to cheat. Sadly these issues jell into a synopsis worthy of a Michael Lewis, Michael Chrichton or Robin Cook tale.
Once again, Sloan 'conducted its own investigation' [how's that been working out? it often works out with lots of wordsmithing from the propaganda (PA) department (e.g. prescription drug dealing in 'the basement' but they don't let you know that the General Stores are 'in the basement'; 'condensation' vs. flooding (from compromised / unsatisfactory joints connecting purified water conduits)] ... but did not notify authorities ... prescription drugs being sold in the basement by non medical staff ... the hospitals general stores is in the basement ... were general stores and or patient safety compromised?
https://nypost.com/2006/02/26/state-probes-hosp-drug-dealing-ring
He got caught when his bosses realized he had ordered toner for printer models the hospital didn't even use. ... he currently lists 'fire safety' as his profession on another social media site
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/05/toner-thief-got-1-5m-in-potato-chip-bags
Memorial Sloan-Kettering worker admits to embezzling $1M (nypost.com)
Beloved surgeon Jeanne Petrek just happened to be run over by an ambulance whilst escorting her own Mom to elder care ...
Shocking Accident Fells Beloved Breast Cancer Surgeon Jeanne... : Oncology Times (lww.com)
https://nypost.com/2022/09/06/memorial-sloan-kettering-scoops-up-piece-of-lipstick-building/
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/09/13/sloan-kettering-pays-185m-for-ues-medical-center/
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-takes-action-against-covid-19-fraud
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nevada-man-charged-using-covid-relief-funds-buy-house
https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=307012641.
https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/20358/david-spriggs.
https://www.propublica.org/series/sloan-kettering-cancer-centers-crisis
https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/david-klimstra
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/health/memorial-sloan-kettering-cancer-paige-ai.html
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/assets/pulse_extra/pulse_extra_050917.html
http://onstealinghope.blogspot.com … This blog’s author’s parents’ first child died of complications of childhood leukemia at Memorial Hospital two years before his (the blog author’s) birth. Children afflicted with similar diseases today stand a good chance of survival due to in no small part to the efforts of MSKCC and like-minded institutions. The stated mission of MSKCC is nonpareil. There are instances of brilliance and selflessness at MSKCC. There are, however, instances of craven self-servitude committed by those who clearly know better. There is an intermittently palpable disingenuousness that emanates from Sloan-Kettering, as Sloan has not been an honest player relative to Environmental Health & Safety [EH&S] and Bioethics / Conflicts of Interest concerns, especially when presenting cases for expansion and leveraging employees who rightfully report problems. The author of this blog was a C-14 Chemistry Laboratory Certificate of Fitness Holder at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and has witnessed Sloan Kettering misstating the facts (lying) on many occasions relative to [chronic, acute, local, systemic and emergent] Environmental Health and Safety Problems that affect employee/community safety and reaction conditions of experiments conducted at the Institute. EH&S concerns relative to MSKCC have been reported to cb8M.com (Community Board 8, Manhattan), OSHA, etc., firstly confidentially and subsequently, publicly. While at Sloan the author of this blog was instructed by a non-clinician colleague to mislead cancer patient(s) (or their proxies) as to the availability of clinical trial candidates created by competitors and tested at Sloan. It has been reported that non-clinicians have attempted to leverage clinical trial overseeing physicians to continue enrollment in clinical trials in variance with clinician inclination. Large milestone royalty payments [contingent on completion vs. cessation of a clinical trial phase] are in play. When reported to colleagues at Sloan, the author of this blog was told that as Sloan could lose its license to conduct clinical trials, these (and similar) bioethically challenged tacks would be swept under the rug. Sloan merely conjures and synchronizes its cover stories when rightfully confronted with complaints. Avice Meehan is the Vice President, Communications and Chief Communications Officer, MSKCC. Edward Mahoney is MSKCC’s VP, Facilities Management. The Chief Financial Officer of MSKCC has stated (paraphrased): Sloan is … pursuing a systemic approach to reducing expenses and increasing revenues. … this effort involves … policy decisions that seek to strike a … balance between providing service and squandering resources. One example of this is discouraging terminally ill patients from seeking initial treatment or second opinions from the cancer center … the admission of such patients is counterproductive for a facility like Sloan-Kettering. Unfortunately, you or a loved one may have a cancer scare, and after hurdling administrative / insurance obstacles (being fortunate enough to obtain an appointment for treatment) the forces of commerce (profit and/or potential profit) may influence enrollment in a clinical trial (in variance with candidate efficacy). People who are guilty of such craven self-servitude clearly know better. Sloan’s slogan is: MSKCC, The Best Cancer Care Anywhere … apparently, as long as it’s consistent with Sloan’s revenue stream and/or the potential stock portfolio of powerful employees.
! This Just In ! ... LMB, Lend Lease (formerly Bovis Lend Lease) admits to “fraudulently” overbilling its clients for the past two decades. “Through this deliberate scheme of billing clients FOR WORK NOT DONE, Bovis deceived their customers and stole taxpayer dollars,” said US Attorney for The Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch.
LMB, Lend Lease (formerly Bovis Lend Lease) admits to “fraudulently” overbilling its clients for the past two decades. “Through this deliberate scheme of billing clients FOR WORK NOT DONE, Bovis deceived their customers and stole taxpayer dollars,” said US Attorney for The Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch.MSKCC poisoned its employees (exposing them to carbon oxide[s]); MSKCC built a laboratory building and KNOWINGLY did NOT install ductwork controls. Chronic and acute EH&S (environmental health and safety) shortcomings at MSKCC stand to affect and may very well have effected not only employee and community safety, but the efficacy of reaction conditions of experiments that result in clinical trial candidates. LMB/Bovis Lend Lease has overseen and continues to oversee major construction projects at MSKCC
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/nyregion/lend-lease-expected-to-admit-to-fraud-scheme.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
[Bovis] Admits It Bilked Clients on Big Projects
http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2012/construction-giant-lend-lease-bovis-charged-with-defrauding-clients-in-three-separate-schemes-and-will-pay-over-50-million-and-institute-comprehensive-reforms
Construction Giant Lend Lease (Bovis) Charged with Defrauding Clients in Three Separate Schemes and Will Pay Over $50 Million and Institute Comprehensive ReformsFormer Principal in Charge of Bovis’ New York Office Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charge, Faces up to 20 Years in Prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office, April 24, 2012
Something Funny Happened On The Way To Stockholm !! … The Pacific Yew Tree – Taxus brefivolia is an evergreen tree found in the Pacific North West. The chemotherapy drug paclitaxel used in breast, ovarian and lung cancer treatment is derived from Taxu brevifolia. The Danishefsky total synthesis of taxol (the third!, behind Holton and KC [hold the presses!] Nicolaou) completed the task via Baccatin III a natural product similar to taxol found in the harvestable (without removing the bark and thereby harming the Yew Tree’s) needles. The taxol race was high profile with much braggadocio prattled by its saber rattling Principal Investigator competitors. Danishefsky’s team nearly pulled off the coup, if not for the discovery team of postdoctorals dropping their guard and trusting the scaled up (previously solved piece of the puzzle farmed out) material provided by the (MSKCC/Sloan-Kettering Institute’s) in-house “prep” [preparative synthesis core facility] lab, whose personnel ordered the wrong isomer of Wieland–Miescher Ketone, dooming an otherwise ultimately completed synthesis (purportedly all was solved save no-brainer synthetic accoutrements) to the wrong optical rotation, i.e. the non-natural product. Bill Bormann Ph.D. headed that Prep-Lab effort and Professor Danishefsky has referred to Bill as a “bird-brain” [note the editor of this comment does not necessarily agree with that description of Bill who was treated like a door-mat while at Sloan]. Danishefsky’s Post-Docs thought of dispatching Bill after Gilbert Stork’s team checked the optical rotation of the all but complete molecule [something Danishefsky’s discovery team of post-docs should have done before incorporating “Bird-Brain” Bill’s Prep-Lab contribution to the effort]. Danishefsky’s team dropped out of the proverbial Taxol synthesis playoffs and watched when Holton (whose paper was scrutinized/peer reviewed to a fault), yet bizarrely and curiously Nature held the presses while the pure as the driven snow KC Nicolaou (et al.) slurped their ink still dripping on the manuscript paper to the Editorial Board of Nature who promptly rubber stamped the paper in world record time. And so, another curious “tie” in science (remember when the French isolated HIV, and we (the Americans!) stole it from the French, but the Gipper (President Reagan) brokered a “tie” (don’t forget to follow the [potential!] money) … things were not hunky-dory at Sloan when the Taxol papers appeared. … fast forward, the Gordon Conferences serve up a natural product whose M.O. mode of action is not unlike Taxol, but which may have more clinical (anticancer) superpowers and less (clinical) side effects! … voila, a potential Billion Dollar Molecule! … and so the race is now on to best the others in the quest to synthesize the epothilones. This initiative is successful although the nefarious KCN (a.k.a. [to quote Erik Sorensen:] “that Bastard” (KCN, that is) was involved in some dubious IP coup v. Danishefsky’s attempts. There were concerns in the lab relative to appropriately signing daily lab notebooks (baad Dongfang Meng … and don’t p** on the floor either! as others need to tip toe around the resultant yellow river …), some reports of postdoctorals keeping two books (baaad Craig Coburn!) and questions about the scientific methodology of a molecular pharmacology colleague that was written off to being the result of a “cultural difference”; however, when one supplies a molecular pharmacologist with umpteen “nude mice” that are apt to get sick if you look at them the wrong way, or if the nipple on the water bottle leaks into the cedar bed of the mouse cage they’ll pass (die) through the night … but Dr. Chou gets all these mice, umpteen die for whatever reason and are not counted in an experiment and there are something akin to 3 mice left and if one does a reverse log graph or some other mathematical trick the Sloan analogue is a bit better than Bristol’s or Novartis’s or whatever and therefore Sarah Danishefsky is apt to declare “ours are better than theirs” and based on that questionable (and likely not statistically significant) premise instruct a colleague to embargo known information relative to the availability of clinical trial candidates of competitors’ (Bristol/Novartis) compounds being vetted at Sloan Kettering from desperate cancer patients or their proxies who ferret out the lab following the publication of an article about epothilones in the high profile, (from a medical perspective, lay press WSJ)! After all, though Sloan’s candidate was not out of the proverbial starting gate yet, very large milestone royalty payments were on the line and Sarah Danishefsky, non clinician Administrative Manager of the Bioorganic Chemistry Lab and spouse of its Awesome PI saw fit to act in a cravenly self – serving manner. When this incident was relayed to an SKI colleague (Neal Rosen!) the Editorial and Graphics Specialist was warned that though such action was selfish it was not illegal for the Danishefsky’s to do, however, Sloan could be penalized (lose its license to conduct clinical trials) and therefore the incident would need to be swept under the rug (actually Neal was not so circumspect in his choice of words). Meanwhile it was reported by “Bird-Brain” [Samuel J. Danishefsky’s adjective] Bill Bormann that the head of Clinical Trials at Sloan (Dr. David Spriggs!) was irritated at Sam Danishefsky because he (a non-clinician) was pressuring Spriggs to continue enrolling patients in the by that point being conducted clinical trial on the Sloan Kettering (Bioorganic Chemistry) epothilone derivative against his (Spriggs’) better clinical judgment. This is important because above mentioned milestone achievement royalty payments are based on milestones such as completing a clinical trial phase and would not be granted if the clinician stopped enrolling patients in the study. This is an egregious conflict of interest. When reported to MSKCC HR (Shaun Smith!), attempts were made to sweep this, too, under the rug. … Then we have the MSKCC Facilities Management follies [Ed Mahoney is its incumbent VP]: Sloan’s selfless employees in an ancillary building were getting SICK. When they reported their illnesses to MSKCC workers who up until that point were annually appraised as outstanding were dispatched on pretense. Sloan attempted to thwart attempts to investigate the causes and had to ABANDON the building when they could no longer duck the fact that MSKCC Facilities Management flaws resulted in its employees being POISONED by CARBON OXIDE(s). Having been privy to Sloan’s intransigence, inappropriate and nasty tack on that matter re proper addressment of this egregious safety flaw, the Editorial / Graphics Specialist was not a fan of the way the Public Affairs and Facilities Team operated. PA and Facilities work FOR SKI/MSKCC, not the other way around. PA and Facilities need to follow proper safety doctrines, not dictate conjured and synchronized cover stories or versions thereof when it suits their needs. Being a relative non-transient (compared with the postdocs who stay at most 3 years), the Ed/Graph Spec was asked to take a C14 Chemistry Laboratory Certificate of Fitness (COF) Exam. Having passed the exam he became one of a few COF Holders on RRL 13. There were concerns of a “cross contamination” between supposedly mutually exclusive fume hoods reported by circumspect postdoctorals, wherein expunged fumes were somehow being recirculated (e.g. chemists from one lab would smell compounds not being used in their lab). This is a concern as (a hypothetical) one researcher may use a cyanide containing compound while using proper ventilation masks, while another researcher may be preparing a reaction with a stir bar and magnetic plate without respiratory protection and may breathe in a fume supposedly vented from another fume hood. One bizarre episode involved alarms sounding, chemists smelling “chlorine” or “bromine”, permeation throughout the floor, an evacuation of the building following an obvious lack of control by MSKCC Safety (a Safety officer refused to enter an area without a gas mask … a curious event as RRL 13 had lobbied for placement of such protection on the floor, but that request was denied). After the event Sloan attempted an inaccurate assuagement of the incident via a note signed by its head of Safety, but possibly ghosted by others (e.g. Public Affairs). When challenged, MSKCC Facilities merely threatened the Sloan C14 COF “you upset a lot of people when you mentioned OSHA”. However unit integrity also equals unit safety even if it means addressing MSKCC Facilities Management shortcomings. Sloan unbelievably but in fact chose NOT to install ductwork controls in the laboratory building strewn with toxins. Other Facilities follies included leaking of water through live electrical light fixtures, possibly from ductwork and/or filtered water conduits whose water is used somewhat universally in SKI experiments. If the integrity of those filtered water conduits are impeached then the efficacy of published results based on experiments that used that “purified water”, clinical candidates that result from such experiments and alas, the Intellectual Property Portfolio that results from those experiments, too must be questioned. More reasons for Sloan to attempt to sweep under the rug these problems. Then Sloan sought a new laboratory building but they could not tell the surrounding and rightfully concerned CB8M Community that it was in fact a replacement building. The ruse invoked was fun to watch, but sad indeed. Sloan’s facilities flaws continue to date, with charges of graft (no show jobs, falsified concrete tests, and admittance by the HEAD of one of the world's largest construction firms that has overseen large construction projects at Sloan that that organization unfathomably, yet knowingly did not complete projects) and even a recent legionella exposure (a situation presciently addressed in the OSHA complaint of 2004 that resulted in Sloan’s citation):
Stagnant water (such as that which accumulates secondary to the ceiling-leak-’phenomena’), combined with ductwork problems and an endless source of exposure to microorganisms may constitute a legionella or pneumonia (causative agent) hospitable environment and it may be appropriate to consider the installation of ultraviolet germicidal lights in the ductwork systems, similar to those apparently studied in The Lancet, (2003, 362 (9898), 1785), if such systems are not already in use and are not in variance with intermittent contact with volatile chemicals that may coincidentally ’seep’ into the ductwork.
http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=307012641
Curiously, though requested (implored!) in writing prior to a follow up site visit, to investigate specific fume hoods that were reported to exhibit the curious “cross contamination” phenomena, an OSHA investigator stated that he had to choose investigation sites randomly; i.e. Sloan was given a pass on this known and big picture damning, systemic problem.
Sloan has also been cited by the EPA.
Dr. David Golde, erstwhile MSKCC Physician in Chief committed suicide via the two whole method (bullet entry/exit wound). It was reported that he had a virulent cancer and (unverified) that the Feds were closing in on other matters.
Zvi Fuks, the Oracle behind Imclone who matched a foundling drug (eventually referred to as erbitux) with a company who sought a raison d’etre was purportedly tipped off during what became known as the Imclone insider stock anomalies.
There were also funny anomalies relative to bookkeeping in the Bioorganic Laboratory. Sarah Danishefsky would deign to show up at work, perhaps 50% time even though she was a “full time employee”, would interrupt SKI work by complaining over the phone about not being able to check her stocks via the internet, and there were funny bookkeeping initiatives; e.g. when the PI would travel at times he’d submit multiple times, to different places, his ticket for reimbursement (e.g. academic talks combined with consultancies) and justify the double billing by stating that his time was important. He’d do the same to cover his wife’s ticket. When the admin charged with filing such reimbursements felt uncomfortable he was taken off the assignment and treated in a threatening manner by the PI and / or his spouse, the conflicted (interests!) “full time employee” Dr. Sarah Danishefsky.
Relative to the Danishefsky’s stocks, SJD was affiliated with Ariad, either on its scientific board or perhaps a scientific founder. When other biotech stocks flourished in ~ 1999 Ariad, embroiled in an intellectual property legal impediment, floundered at ~ 50 cents. When the case was settled, the stock rocketed to ca. 50 dollars (a 10,000% or 100X increase) in perhaps a four month period, until the (bio)tech stock bubble burst ca. March of 2000 [when Clinton and Blair had a joint news conference stating their intention to share genomic data and possibly hindering the ability to patent genes]. Ariad insiders would have been privy to when the settlement would occur and may have been liberal in passing this information on to others. Are there Ariad millionaires at Sloan? Are you an Ariad millionaire? Wouldn’t it be a coincidence if the erstwhile head (a VP!) of MSKCC Public Affairs (Avice! who coincidentally was at times of import to the processing of Professor Danishefsky’s auto-nominations [by proxy!] of himself for various scientific door prizes was an Ariad tippee?
John Deutch the erstwhile DCI, Director of Central Intelligence (the CIA!) under Clinton, who was admonished for removing top secret computers from the agency (did he leave them at a Starbucks?) was granted a seconds to midnight pardon by President Clinton while Hillary was proverbially stealing the White House silverware. John Deutch has also been a chemistry professor at MIT, is a member of the proverbial Cambridge (MA, not UK!) Curia of king makers and has been affiliated with Ariad in a Board/Director and/or Advisor type capacity. Wouldn’t it be curious if any Clinton affiliate (e.g. Hillary, Chelsea, Bill, or a "blind" (my foot! ;) trust in their names?) happened to be an Ariad tippee and had an Ariad windfall prior to the Clinton pardon?
Ed Sausville vetted an NIH RAID (rapid application to industrial development, meant as a bridge to clinical development) grant for the bioorganic chemistry lab for its epothilone derivatives. It was granted. (remember, Sarah Danishefsky, accepts gov’t money to vet epothilones, yet attempts to steer people away from the clinical trials of competing compounds conducted at Sloan, an egregious conflict of interest from a non clinician). Sausville has since sat on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Biotech Company (since purchased by Bristol Myers Squibb) that developed the Sloan Kettering portfolio of epothilones [Kosan].
The Danishefskys have practiced mucophagy and rhinotillexamania. (for SJD, ear wax, too). [For SJD it’s apparently an absentminded pastime (perhaps he could take up painting as a pastime as did Winston C.), but for Sarah it may very well be an insult conducted in front of people she considers herself better than].
Now Sloan is attempting to metastasize to Harrison. The mission of MSKCC is nonpareil and most of its employees are selfless and truly care. However, there are clinicians, suits and researchers in high places who inappropriately drop their guard and act selfishly to a fault. This is hurtful as these people clearly know better. Remember the statement: “Sloan is pursuing a systemic approach to reducing expenses and increasing revenues […] One example of this is discouraging terminally ill patients from seeking initial treatment or second opinions from the cancer center […] the admission of such patients is counterproductive […] to Sloan Kettering.” [paraphrasing salient features, MSKCC, CFO/Chief Financial Officer].
Sloan boasts as having the “best cancer care anywhere” … apparently as long as it’s consistent with Sloan’s revenue stream and/or the potential profit of high profile non - clinicians’ stock portfolios.
MSKCC’s new President has recently been accused by his former employer of unscrupulous actions relative to intellectual property.
Don Wiley a world renowned virologist, one of the 'missing [or dead!] scientists' of post 9/11 conspiracy theorist fame [this factoid for your edification, not implying acceptance/or/denial of any missing/dead scientist conspiracy theories] ... just happened to fall off of a bridge [above the Mississippi while attending an SAB (scientific advisory board) type meeting] ... and his body was discovered perhaps 10 days later down stream. ... just happened to fall off of a bridge. Don was pals with other members of the Cambridge (MA/not UK!) Curia of biotech/big pharma academia king makers [e.g. an aspirant to that gang, Greg Verdine, of Harvard's renowned Chemistry Department]. GV was apparently a founding scientist of Ariad! Wouldn't it be a coincidence if Wiley was an Ariad millionaire? Were you?
re: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/digging_up_secret_slay_Hnx86uB1mMi6BPdjLqTaIN
Professor Danishefsky's brother runs a boutique shop within (formerly) Merrill, now at UBS along with his brother's son and (formerly) his brother's daughter who (see above) had an untimely demise. There is no implied Ariad connection here, but it would be interesting if there was one.
For brevity we won't resurrect the previously mentioned Corey cache of suicides [go*gle lethal chemistry at harvard], or the whole Sezen (Dali, [academic] Son of Sam [don't have a relationship with your graduate student ... at least until the ink is dry on her (hopefully) true veracity thesis] Sames brouhaha ...
Suggestion of the Day! ... that Sloan's CFO and Drs. Danishefsky “present” (with powerpoint!) at the Occupy Wall Street initiatives ...
There are many people who selflessly work at Sloan when they could be working in the for profit sector. When these employees rightfully bring concerns to the fore they are often dispatched under pretense (i.e. thrown under a bus). The admittedly critical tone of this summary of events is a rebuttal to such unacceptable attempts to bully and sweep under the rug egregious conflicts of interest and safety flaws. Just gifting Sloan back the bus that she’s apt to inappropriately attempt to toss others under.
! MSKCCheats / TheDanishefskyDeception ! … Stealing Hope One Clinical Trial Enrolee At A Time?? … when they ought to be steeling hope. …
Boo MSKCC, you know better, especially people who claim to personify a high level of religiosity. Why don’t you provide leadership by example?
Given the history of Facilities Management and Construction Flaws and Sloan’s curious (even if swept under the rug) conflicts of interest and ethics anomalies, it is appropriate to watch that ancillary expansion initiative closely and circumspectly.
Let us cite/paraphrase a few salient features of MLK’s speeches:
And there is deep down within all of us an instinct. It's a kind of drum major instinct—a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first. And it is something that runs the whole gamut of life … A Dream, to be … judged by … the content of their character.
Institutes and people capable of such a high caliber work product ought to provide leadership by example (be a drum major!) and not act in a manner that reflects a poor content of character (craven self servitude) …
MSKCC, the best cancer care anywhere! …
