'Wishful Science' Plagues Testing Of Drug Candidates

Landis says ALS is not the only example of this type of wishful science. Similar problems emerged in the study of a drug being tested to see if it could protect the brain from the damage of a stroke. She says that test, too, showed the drug to be a dismal failure.

"A number of people have gone back and looked at the evidence and discovered that, in fact, there are a number of very straightforward things about the conduct of those studies that made it likely that the drug would fail when it went into people," she says.

Landis has since added new guidelines that scientists must follow before the neurology institute will fund large drug tests on people.

"There are now clinical trials that would have been funded five to seven years ago which won't be funded until the preclinical studies are done in a way that is actually believable," she says.