Japan vows action over claims of fabricated drug data
TOKYO — Japan's health minister said Friday it was very likely that
test data on a widely used blood pressure drug from Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Novartis had been fabricated and falsified.Norihisa Tamura characterised as "extremely regrettable" an incident in which an employee of the world's number two drug maker had hidden his affiliation during a medical study into the effects of Valsartan.
A study at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine concluded that the drug, developed to treat high blood pressure, could also help to prevent strokes and angina.
But the university said Thursday incomplete clinical data had been used to support this finding and that had patients' records been used in their entirety, the study would have had a different conclusion.
While Valsartan was effective in controlling high blood pressure, the university said the medication did not necessarily have any effect on strokes or angina.
Novartis sells the drug under the name "Diovan" in Japan, where it is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs on the market. It is licensed for use in more than 100 countries.
The firm used the study to market its drug, playing up its supposed additional benefits.
Tamura said the case "highly suggests fabrication and falsification of data" and he would be establishing a special committee to work out how to prevent this in future studies and to review ethical guidelines.
The study was led by professor Hiroaki Matsubara, and included among its researchers an un-named Novartis employee, who was identified as an adjunct lecturer at Osaka City University.
Matsubara resigned his post at the university in February after scientific journals pulled his papers citing inconsistent data and as the school launched a probe.
The Novartis worker, who has already left the firm, has refused to cooperate with the university's investigation.
In a statement issued Friday, Novartis stressed that the university was not able to conclude that there was intentional wrong-doing.
The Swiss giant said the inconsistencies might be unintentional errors, not the "manipulation" suggested by the university.
The Novartis researcher was also involved in Diovan research at Tokyo Jikei University, Chiba University, Nagoya University and the Shiga University of Medical Science, Kyodo News said.
These universities have said they will also conduct investigations to see if there were any problems.
Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT HIGHER ED
TOUGHER REQUIREMENTS AHEAD FOR TEACHER PREP
A panel tapped by the national accreditation body for teacher preparation has finalized a set of standards that, for the first time, establishes minimum admissions criteria and requires programs to use much-debated "value added" measures, where available. The action promises to have major ramifications for how programs select, prepare, and gauge the success of new teachers. Already, programs planning to seek the seal of approval from the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation say the standards are significantly more demanding than those used by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, one of two accreditors that preceded CAEP. The article is in Education Week.
JANET NAPOLITANO TO HEAD UC SYSTEM
Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, The Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history. Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders said focused on her early as a high-profile, although untraditional, candidate who has led large public agencies and shown a strong interest in improving education. The article is in the L.A. Times.
VALUE OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE BEFORE TRANSFER
Community college students on average will receive more economic benefit from their higher education if they complete an associate degree before transferring to a four-year institution, according to new research from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. The study considered data on credit accumulation, completion and labor market returns for students from North Carolina's Community College System. One reason for the eventual pay-off of a two-year degree, according to the study, is that relatively few students who transfer early ever complete a bachelor's degree and therefore end up leaving college with no credential. The information is from Inside Higher Ed’s Quick Takes.
GIVE STATES INCENTIVES TO IMPROVE THEIR INVESTMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Joni Finney writes in The Quick and the Ed: If the federal government doesn’t take into account the role that states play in financing their systems of higher education, their funding strategies are likely to simply maintain the status quo. Student financial aid is not the only area of finance that deserves attention through better inter-governmental cooperation. Federal investment in higher education should prod states in constructive directions. Incentives are the tool to get this done, a tool used far too infrequently in Washington.
ABOUT K-12
SENATE PANEL NIPS AT KEY OBAMA COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAMS
The Obama administration's signature competitive grant programs—Race to the Top, Promise Neighborhoods, and the School Improvement Grants—survived, but took some serious abuse this week from some Democrats during the Senate Appropriations committee's consideration of a bill to finance the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal year 2014, which starts Oct. 1. The bill, which was approved by a Senate appropriations subcommittee earlier in the week, includes a huge boost for prekindergarten programs, another big Obama priority. The post is from Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog.
Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT HIGHER ED
TOUGHER REQUIREMENTS AHEAD FOR TEACHER PREP
A panel tapped by the national accreditation body for teacher preparation has finalized a set of standards that, for the first time, establishes minimum admissions criteria and requires programs to use much-debated "value added" measures, where available. The action promises to have major ramifications for how programs select, prepare, and gauge the success of new teachers. Already, programs planning to seek the seal of approval from the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation say the standards are significantly more demanding than those used by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, one of two accreditors that preceded CAEP. The article is in Education Week.
JANET NAPOLITANO TO HEAD UC SYSTEM
Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, The Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history. Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders said focused on her early as a high-profile, although untraditional, candidate who has led large public agencies and shown a strong interest in improving education. The article is in the L.A. Times.
VALUE OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE BEFORE TRANSFER
Community college students on average will receive more economic benefit from their higher education if they complete an associate degree before transferring to a four-year institution, according to new research from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. The study considered data on credit accumulation, completion and labor market returns for students from North Carolina's Community College System. One reason for the eventual pay-off of a two-year degree, according to the study, is that relatively few students who transfer early ever complete a bachelor's degree and therefore end up leaving college with no credential. The information is from Inside Higher Ed’s Quick Takes.
GIVE STATES INCENTIVES TO IMPROVE THEIR INVESTMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Joni Finney writes in The Quick and the Ed: If the federal government doesn’t take into account the role that states play in financing their systems of higher education, their funding strategies are likely to simply maintain the status quo. Student financial aid is not the only area of finance that deserves attention through better inter-governmental cooperation. Federal investment in higher education should prod states in constructive directions. Incentives are the tool to get this done, a tool used far too infrequently in Washington.
ABOUT K-12
SENATE PANEL NIPS AT KEY OBAMA COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAMS
The Obama administration's signature competitive grant programs—Race to the Top, Promise Neighborhoods, and the School Improvement Grants—survived, but took some serious abuse this week from some Democrats during the Senate Appropriations committee's consideration of a bill to finance the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal year 2014, which starts Oct. 1. The bill, which was approved by a Senate appropriations subcommittee earlier in the week, includes a huge boost for prekindergarten programs, another big Obama priority. The post is from Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog.
FROM HEALTHCARE REFORM, LESSONS FOR EDUCATION POLICY
Century Foundation President Greg Anrig writes in Education Week: In education, off a public radar screen that remains fixated on the relentless conflict between teachers' unions and their detractors, research is mounting that the most effective public schools also are characterized by unusually high degrees of collaboration, close attentiveness to testing data for diagnostic (not punitive) purposes, and adaptability. Especially in light of how unproductive the so-called education wars have been, greater focus on this research has the potential to point the way toward reforms that would actually improve student outcomes. Given how entrenched today's conflicts appear to be, that hope might seem fanciful. But it wasn't that long ago that a major overhaul of the nation's health-care system also appeared to be out of reach politically. Perhaps the most significant and persuasive research underscoring the fundamental importance of collaboration to improving school performance was conducted by the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research. Published in 2010 as a book titled Organizing Schools for Improvement, the consortium's study derived from demographic and testing data from 1990 through 2005 from more than 400 Chicago elementary schools, as well as extensive surveys of stakeholders in those schools, to gain information about their institutional practices. Using advanced statistical methods, the consortium identified, with a high degree of reliability, the organizational traits and processes that can predict whether a school is likely to show above-average improvement in student outcomes.
One of the lead authors on this book was Carnegie President Anthony Bryk. He created the Consortium on Chicago School Research. Today, Carnegie's work to transform educational research and development draws on lessons from healthcare and other industries and has its beginnings in the work in Chicago.
posted Jul 09, 2013 10:08 am
Daily News Roundup, July 9, 2013
Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT HIGHER ED
BEYOND MOOC HYPE
As scores of colleges rush to offer free online classes, the mania over massive open online courses may be slowing down. Even top proponents of MOOCs are acknowledging critical questions remain unanswered, and are urging further study. Dan Greenstein, the head of college access at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, now wonders aloud if MOOCs are a “viable thing or are just a passing fad.” Gates has agreed to spend $3 million for wide-reaching MOOC-related grants. But Greenstein said higher ed is suffering from “innovation exhaustion,” and MOOCs are part of the problem. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
MOOCS AND ECONOMIC REALITY
Clay Shirky writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education: Though the conversation about MOOCs is now widespread, the overall number of students is still small, and the mechanisms for converting completion to college credit are, so far, few and rarely used. But the trend lines point up, driven by a force whose existence has surprised us: a widespread desire for cheap provision of complicated knowledge, delivered outside traditional institutions.
A UNIVERSITY’S OFFER OF CREDIT FOR MOOC GETS NO TAKERS
It was big news last fall when Colorado State University-Global Campus became the first college in the United States to grant credit to students who passed a MOOC, or massive open online course. For students, it meant a chance to get college credit on the cheap: $89, the cost of the required proctored exam, compared with the $1,050 that Colorado State charges for a comparable three-credit course. That is a big discount. Yet almost a year after Global Campus made the announcement, officials are still waiting for their first credit bargain-hunters. The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
NO SUCH THING AS FREE TUITION
Last week the Oregon legislature took the first steps toward possibly implementing a plan that would allow public college and university students to forgo upfront tuition payments in exchange for paying a portion of their wages back to their alma mater for about 25 years following graduation. While it may mean no money down, it could still add up to large tuition bills. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
ABOUT K-12
NEW TENNESSEE TACHER PAY PLAN IS HYBRID
With the recent adoption of a controversial teacher pay plan, Tennessee has moved closer to three states that have carved out reputations for dramatically overhauling their pay policies. Florida, Indiana, and Louisiana have implemented pay plans in recent years that give more weight to performance and less to the number of degrees racked up by teachers. Though Tennessee's plan doesn't go quite as far -- some states have actually stopped tying pay to higher degrees altogether -- districts here must now consider new factors other than experience and advanced degrees when they create pay scales for the 2014-15 school year. The article is in the Tennessean.
ABOUT K-12
EDUCATION REFORM MOVEMENT LEARNS LESSONS FROM OLD STANDARDS
Common Core — the new set of national education standards in math and English language arts — will take effect in most states next year. This move toward a single set of standards has been embraced by a bipartisan crowd of politicians and educators largely because of what the Common Core standards are replacing: a mess. In years past, the education landscape was a discord of state standards. A fourth grader in Arkansas could have appeared proficient in reading by his state's standards — but, by the standards of another state, say Massachusetts, not even close. "For far too long, our school systems actually lied to children and to families and to communities," says Education Secretary Arne Duncan at a recent speech in Washington. And what made those lies possible, according to Duncan, was the one thing most of these state standards had in common: They were low. The piece ran on NPR’s Morning Edition.
MENTORSHIP FOR NEW EDUCATORS HELPS COMBAT TEACHER BURNOUT, RETENTION
Walk into any classroom in the country today and you're more likely to find a teacher in their first year of teaching than any other experience level. And they're not sticking around. At the core of the crisis, the experts say, that first-year teachers are particularly vulnerable when it comes to buckling under the pressures and frustrations they are sometimes ill-prepared to face once they take to the classroom. The piece ran on PBS’s NewsHour.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
GRADUATION RATES, TEST SCORES DRIVE HIGHER ED FUNDING
Tennessee and New Mexico give money to institutions for graduating high numbers of older and low-income students. Mississippi uses the power of the purse to promote science and technology programs. And Missouri is tying taxpayer dollars to graduation rates and students' scores on tests and professional licensing exams. The goals differ from state to state, but performance-based funding is a growing trend in higher education. The article is from Stateline.org.
UMASS TO RATE ITS PERFORMANCE IN A SIMPLER WAY
University of Massachusetts president Robert L. Caret, setting aside widespread qualms on individual campuses, has developed a list of performance goals that will be used to essentially grade the system, an effort to show that public money is being well spent and to spur healthier graduation rates and economic activity. For years, UMass has churned out statistic-laden reports that, at 100 or even 250 pages, few people read. Caret, who calls himself “a data guy,” said it is time for a more user-friendly report card of sorts, a short brochure that not only tells the public where the institution is but where it should be. The article is in the Boston Globe.
INDIANA UNIVERSITIES RETHINK STUDENT TEACHING
A more appealing approach than traditional student teaching — in which a teacher candidate starts out as a passive observer and then takes over the teaching after a few weeks—has become a part of the University of Southern Indiana’s teacher preparation process. That’s because classroom teachers are becoming increasingly reluctant to turn over their students to a novice for long stretches in an age when teacher pay and tenure are tied to student improvement and performance. “Teachers are beginning to be reluctant to host a student teacher,” said Joyce Rietman, director of USI’s advanced clinical experience and co-teaching. “Their name is on (the) test scores. It’s scary and risky to take a student teacher.” The article is from the Hechinger Report.
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