Two Nobel Judges for Medicine to Step Down Over Ethics Scandal

The Nobel season will kicks off this year on 3 October, with the medicine award first on the list.

The secretary of the Nobel Assembly, Thomas Perlmann, said Harriet Wallberg and Anders Hamsten were being asked to step down. (Photo: iStockPhoto)

Two members of the assembly that awards the Nobel prize for medicine are to quit for failing to heed warnings about a major ethics scandal, the panel said, on Tuesday.

The secretary of the Nobel Assembly, Thomas Perlmann, said Harriet Wallberg and Anders Hamsten were being asked to step down.

The crisis of trust is such...that we are going to ask them to leave the Nobel Assembly.

Thomas Perlmann, Secretary of Nobel Assembly

The two are being asked to step down as, under the statutes of the Nobel Assembly, they cannot technically be fired.

The pair are former rectors of the Karolinska Institute (KI) – Sweden’s top medical university – where the scandal coincided with their spells in office.

The affair centres on Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who in 2011 soared to fame for inserting the first synthetic trachea, or windpipe. It was a plastic structure seeded with the patient’s own stem cells, immature cells that grow into specialised cells of the body’s organs. He later went onto performing three of these operations in Stockholm and five others around the world.

But two patients died and a third was left severely ill. Allegations ensued that the risky procedure had been carried out on at least one individual who had not been life-threateningly ill.

Swedish police are carrying out an investigation for manslaughter. Macchiarini is also suspected of lying about his scientific research and his past experience with prestigious medical research centres.

Wallberg’s reputation has been tarnished for hiring Macchiarini in KI, while Hamsten, her successor as KI’s rector, has been accused of failing to grasp the scale of the problem as it unfolded.

KI dismissed Macchiarini on 23 March and announced the break in an exceptionally blunt statement.

It is impossible for KI to continue to have any cooperation with Paolo Macchiarini. He has acted in a way that has had very tragic consequences for the people affected and their families. His conduct has seriously damaged confidence in KI.

The announcement came less than a month before the start of the Nobel season, which kicks off this year on 3 October, with the medicine award first on the list.

(With inputs from PTI)