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This is Science Friday. I'm Flor Lichtman. Today on the podcast, a bombshell

investigation of scientific misconduct and how it may have slowed treatment for a devastating

disease. Here you have a situation where one of the most influential studies in the last couple

decades seemed to have been based on doctored images. Every year, billions of dollars are funneled into

Alzheimer's research.

And yet, so far, there's no treatment that's been able to reverse the disease,

or even meaningfully slow the cognitive decline of patients.

Part of the reason is that the disease is complex.

Brain disorders are notoriously difficult to understand.

But in a new book, an investigative science reporter makes the case that there's another reason Alzheimer's treatments have stalled, and that is scientific fraud.

Charles Pillar is an investigative journalist at Science Magazine and author of the new book,

Doctored, Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's.

He's based in Oakland, California.

Charles, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you so much for having me, Flora.

Your book starts with the story of the drug semifulum, which was in phase three clinical trials to treat Alzheimer's.

Ultimately, it was found ineffective. But even before that,

while it was still in trials, a neuroscientist whistleblower uncovered some red flags in the science

underpinning the drug. Tell me about it. Sure. So this drug was made by a company called Kassava Sciences. And the drug was haunted by

concerns associated with a few different aspects of its development. First was the basic science

behind its development as a compound that could possibly be an effective drug.

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