Philanthropist-funded study at a prestigious hospital raises thorny questions about clinical research
The opportunity seemed too good to pass up. It was 2020, and the CEO of a blood-test company was addressing fibromyalgia patients through their television screens. His firm, EpicGenetics, wasn’t exactly a household name, but its product could help get you in the door at Massachusetts General Hospital. “With a positive test,” Bruce Gillis, the CEO, said, “you can volunteer for an FDA-approved clinical trial for an investigational new treatment to reverse the disease and eliminate your symptoms.”
The hospital, though, wasn’t so sure about that pronouncement. In 2017, Gillis had approached a researcher there, offering to bankroll a study to see whether an old tuberculosis vaccine could be repurposed to treat fibromyalgia. The researcher agreed, and money started coming in. But then, in 2018, once the project got regulatory approval, the payments stopped before patient recruitment could begin. The hospital sent reminders, but still no checks appeared. So the researcher was surprised to learn, in 2021, that EpicGenetics had been promoting its FM/a Test as a gateway to her study for years.
