Problems at Texas cancer agency mirrored in clinical trials project's collapse
AUSTIN — The plan backed by Texas’ cancer-fighting agency was an ambitious one: a statewide network to move cancer treatments rapidly from laboratories to patients.
But its quick and public death last week was rooted in nearly all of the problems that have plagued the agency, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
Almost three years ago, CPRIT awarded $25 million to launch the project. But the Statewide Clinical Trials Network of Texas collapsed just one day after the release of a state audit that found extensive problems in how CPRIT operated, from flaws in the way applications were reviewed to failures in tracking how public dollars were spent.
Those same problems brought down CTNeT, which received the largest grant the small state agency has made. High-ranking CPRIT officials impaired their agency’s independence by becoming too involved in CTNeT’s operations at a time when they should have ensured that grant dollars were spent properly, the audit said.
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The Travis County district attorney’s office said its ongoing criminal investigation of CPRIT has been expanded to include the CTNeT grant.
“We are going to review the circumstances of that grant,” said Gregg Cox, director of the district attorney’s Special Prosecutions Division.
As the Legislature considers changes to CPRIT, Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said she is increasingly worried about the challenge of “salvaging” the agency. She said the oversight committee should have been asking more questions about the agency’s activities, and said she plans to file a bill aimed at fixing CPRIT’s problems.
“It’s actually alarming that an advisory committee of this agency would not be more alert to all of the problems that existed with regard to how the grant decisions were being made and monitored after they were made,” she said. “It’s remarkable.”
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