Blood, lies, and a drug trials lab gone bad

PLUS: More of WIRED's best longreads from this week.

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  10.24.21 Getting a drug approved by the FDA is a long and expensive slog. Much of the nitty-gritty work is done by independent research centers that recruit volunteers, dispense the drugs (or placebos), and then carefully monitor patients for outcomes and side effects. These research centers are heavily monitored by their private partners and by the FDA itself. But what would happen if one of them was run by a person who didn't care at all about the scientific process? Someone who would brazenly cheat, cut corners, and then take millions in fees? That question is at the center of a riveting Backchannel article by longtime contributing editor Brendan I. Koerner, who tells the story of an independent research center run by Sami Anwar, a con man of breathtaking shamelessness. If Anwar's center didn't have enough blood samples, they'd draw the blood of center employees and claim it came from volunteers. If employees complained, Anwar would bully and harass them. The tires of one employee's car were slashed. Another received bizarre phone threats suggesting she was being surveilled. To be sure, Anwar's fraudulent research center was an outlier in a larger system that is rigorous and reliable. But the story also illustrates how "the clinical-trials industry, like so many of our most vital institutions, operates on the assumption that even the most grievous errors are made in good faith." Sometimes, as Koerner's piece reveals, the only way to stop bad faith is with good people. Mark Robinson | Features Editor, WIRED   SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE    Blood, Lies, and a Drug Trials Lab Gone Bad BY BRENDAN I. KOERNER | 28-MINUTE READ The system for testing pharmaceuticals in the US relies on contractors adhering to strict guidelines. But one of them chose profits over protocols.     Tinder Thinks Love Has No Borders—Even in the West Bank BY YONA GOLDING | 7-MINUTE READ Technology companies like to operate as though their products transcend geopolitics. Swiping right from Israel and Palestine proves otherwise.     The Mathematics of Cancel Culture BY KC COLE | 7-MINUTE READ To add fractions, you find the least common denominator—a term that has a certain resonance in our age of mass cancellation.     How Facebook Hides How Terrible It Is With Hate Speech BY NOAH GIANSIRACUSA | 5-MINUTE READ The company publicly claims its AI is amazing at removing harmful content, but internal documents suggest they know the algorithm is ineffective.     Very Little Is Keeping Doctors From Using Racist Health Formulas BY JYOTI MADHUSOODANAN | 7-MINUTE READ If nothing in medicine changes, it's just a matter of time before yet another race-based risk calculator harms people of color.     Bodies Are Canceled BY ELEANOR CUMMINS | 6-MINUTE READ It's almost inevitable that social media forces us to see ourselves as objects—so why not opt out of the human image? GET WIRED Fall Sale: Get WIRED for just $10 $5. Get the print edition and exclusive subscriber-only content. You can't see into the future, but you can subscribe to WIRED. Subscribe now.         This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions