Tufts University: anesthesiologist invented 21 clinical trials, fooled Pfizer and Merck

Scott Reuben was a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Tufts University and chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts. He was considered one of the most influential researchers in pain management, publishing studies that shaped how doctors treated post-surgical pain. His work was cited in clinical guidelines and used to support drug approvals.

From 1996 to 2009, Reuben fabricated data in at least 21 journal articles. He claimed to have conducted clinical trials testing painkillers including Pfizer's Celebrex, Bextra, and Lyrica, and Merck's Vioxx. In reality, he never conducted the trials — in some cases he invented patients. He forged co-authors' names and wrote to the FDA urging them not to restrict drug use, citing his own fabricated data. Pfizer gave him five research grants between 2002 and 2007.

A routine audit in May 2008 revealed Reuben had not obtained approval for two studies. He admitted to fabricating data in March 2009. On February 21, 2010, he pleaded guilty to health care fraud. He was sentenced to six months in federal prison, ordered to pay $360,000 in restitution to pharmaceutical companies, and permanently debarred from FDA work. His medical license was permanently revoked in Massachusetts. Twenty-one papers were retracted.

He invented patients and forged co-authors in 21 papers, earning $360K in grants; a routine audit about missing approvals, not science, finally caught him.

Reuben's research was never independently replicated — the field accepted results that always matched what drug companies wanted to hear.

Drug companies funded his work and relied on it without verifying the underlying data existed, letting fabricated data reach regulators.

The routine audit that caught him was about paperwork, not science — a decade of fraud went undetected because nobody checked if the trials had actually been run.

When a researcher's results always confirm what the sponsor wants to hear, the absence of negative findings is itself a finding — the system that trusts data without verification is the enabler.

The Reuben case was described as 'the biggest case of fraud in the history of anesthesiology' and one of the longest-running academic frauds. It exposed how pharmaceutical companies funded and relied on fabricated clinical data. The case led to increased scrutiny of clinical trial registration and greater awareness of the need for independent verification of published research results.