Scripps Re­search In­sti­tute has set­tled a case with the Jus­tice De­part­ment al­leg­ing claims of mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ed funds, the US at­tor­ney for the dis­trict of Mary­land an­nounced late last week.

Pros­e­cu­tors said the in­sti­tute im­prop­er­ly used NIH-fund­ed re­search grants for non-grant re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing work­ing on new grant ap­pli­ca­tions, teach­ing ac­tiv­i­ties and oth­er ad­min­is­tra­tive tasks. As part of the set­tle­ment, Scripps has agreed to pay $10 mil­lion.

Pros­e­cu­tors not­ed that no de­ter­mi­na­tion of li­a­bil­i­ty had been made in the case.

“The NIH has fi­nite re­sources to sup­port im­por­tant re­search across the na­tion,” said gov­ern­ment lawyer Jef­frey Clark in a state­ment on Sept. 11. “To­day’s set­tle­ment demon­strates our com­mit­ment to pro­tect those re­sources by en­sur­ing that NIH grants funds are used for the pur­pos­es for which they were in­tend­ed.”

Ac­cord­ing to the an­nounce­ment, Scripps re­ceives mil­lions of dol­lars in NIH grant fund­ing every year, and the set­tle­ment re­solves al­le­ga­tions that oc­curred be­tween 2008 and 2016. Scripps al­leged­ly did not pro­vide a prop­er ac­count­ing sys­tem for its re­searchers to keep track of time spent on non-grant projects. As such, the in­sti­tute charged the time to the gov­ern­ment rather than al­lo­cate it as in­di­rect costs.

The al­leged in­ci­dents were orig­i­nal­ly brought to light through a whistle­blow­er claim from a for­mer Scripps em­ploy­ee, who will re­ceive $1.75 mil­lion as part of the agree­ment. While at Scripps, their salary was al­leged­ly 100% charged to the gov­ern­ment for at least two years, ac­cord­ing to re­port­ing by the Palm Beach Post. 

A spokesper­son for Scripps told End­points News that the charges stemmed from an “ac­count­ing dis­crep­an­cy that av­er­aged less than half of one per­cent per year of the in­sti­tute’s an­nu­al fed­er­al grant fund­ing.”

The in­sti­tute’s state­ment con­tin­ued:

Through­out the course of the in­quiry the In­sti­tute ful­ly co­op­er­at­ed with the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, pro­vid­ing all re­quest­ed doc­u­men­ta­tion and as­sist­ing gov­ern­ment in­ves­ti­ga­tors. No ques­tions were raised con­cern­ing the qual­i­ty or con­duct of our re­search or the con­tri­bu­tions of our fac­ul­ty to sci­ence, in­no­va­tion, and the im­prove­ment of hu­man health.

Scripps Re­search tremen­dous­ly val­ues the in­vest­ment the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment makes in sci­en­tif­ic re­search, and we are deeply com­mit­ted to us­ing this sup­port to its ut­most to make dis­cov­er­ies and in­no­va­tions that im­prove hu­man health.

Scripps is one of the most promi­nent sci­en­tif­ic in­sti­tu­tions in the bio­med­ical are­na, with lo­ca­tions in La Jol­la, CA and Jupiter, FL. Dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, Scripps ex­ec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent Er­ic Topol has been one of the staunchest pro­po­nents of in­dus­try trans­paren­cy, pub­licly push­ing for vac­cine mak­ers to di­vulge in­for­ma­tion about their tri­als. Mod­er­na, Pfiz­er and As­traZeneca, the three com­pa­nies con­duct­ing Phase III stud­ies in the US, each re­leased their safe­ty blue­prints with­in the last four days.

Several countries had restarted their portions of AstraZeneca’s global Phase III Covid-19 vaccine trial after the study was paused worldwide in early September, but the US notably stayed on the sidelines — until now. Friday afternoon the pharma giant announced the all clear from US regulators. And on top of that, J&J announced Friday evening that it’s preparing to resume its own Phase III vaccine trial.

Since before Ilan Ganot started Solid Bio to develop a gene therapy for kids like his son, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Ultragenyx CEO Emil Kakkis has been watching and advising the former investment banker as he navigated the deep waters of drug development.

Just as Solid is getting back up on its feet after a yearlong clinical hold, Kakkis has decided to jump in for a formal alliance.

With a $40 million upfront, Ultragenyx is grabbing 14.45% of Solid’s shares $SLDB and the rights to its microdystrophin construct for use in combination with AAV8 vectors. Solid’s lead program, which utilizes AAV9, remains unaffected. The company also retains rights to other applications of its transgene.

Adam Koppel and Jeffrey Schwartz have jumped into the blank check game, raising $125 million for a stock listing in search of a company.

Their SPAC, BCLS Acquisition Corp, raised $125 million this week, with a line on $25 million more as it scouts for a biotech in search of money and a place on Wall Street.

The two principals at Bain Life Sciences have been on a romp since they set up the Bain operation 4 years ago. Their S-1 spells out a track record of 22 deals totaling $650 million for the life sciences group, which led to 9 IPOs.

The big tell for CureVac $CVAC is coming up with a looming early-stage readout on their mRNA Covid-19 vaccine in the clinic. But for now they’ll make do with an upbeat assessment on the preclinical animal data they used to get into the clinic.

Researchers for the German biotech say they got the high antibody titers and T cell activation they were looking for, lining up a hamster challenge to demonstrate — in a simple model — that the vaccine could protect the furry creatures. Like the other mRNA vaccines, the drug sends instructions to spur cells to decorate themselves with the distinctive spike on the virus to elicit an immune response.

After flying high on Wall Street for the last few months of a pandemic, BiondVax’s stock and dreams of getting approval for its universal flu vaccine hit the windshield.

The Jerusalem-based biotech announced on Friday that its only clinical candidate, M-001, failed both primary and secondary endpoints in a Phase III study. There was no statistically significant difference in reduction of flu illness and severity between the vaccine and placebo groups, according to the company. The vaccine did prove safe, if ineffective, BiondVax said.