Lancet retracts paper by disgraced Canadian researcher

The Lancet has retracted a 1992 study by the Canadian self proclaimed “father of nutritional immunology,” Ranjit Kumar Chandra, on the grounds that its reliability “can no longer be assured.”1

The study—a major trial that reported an improvement in older people’s immunity and infection risk after taking nutritional supplements2—was the second of Chandra’s studies to be retracted within the past six months.

In October The BMJ retracted his 1989 study into the immune benefits of baby formula after receiving a suppressed report of an inquiry of his research, completed in 1995 by his former employer, Memorial University of Newfoundland, after allegations of data fabrication.3

Doubts about the plausibility of the Lancet study first …