NIH Reports ‘Research Misconduct’ by Texas Primate Center Director: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
August 4, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement by PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo on the government report detailing “research misconduct” by the director of the federally funded Southwest National Primate Research Center at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. The National Institutes of Health Office of Research Integrity found that Deepak Kaushal “engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, and/or recklessly falsifying and fabricating the experimental methodology to demonstrate results obtained under different experimental conditions.”

Deepak Kaushal should be removed as director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center and barred from receiving publicly funded grants. He has betrayed the government, the scientific community, and taxpayers by falsifying and fabricating information on his grant application and in published work—all while he was infecting monkeys with tuberculosis and simian immunodeficiency virus. He is also a coauthor of the primate center’s much-touted Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine study. The monkeys he hurt and killed for his own aggrandizement and to gain well-paying positions of authority have no recourse, but the National Institutes of Health should require the return of all funds Kaushal received and should make sure he never gets his hands on another animal or taxpayer dollar.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.