Israeli team now claims they can’t publish ‘cancer cure’ research due to lack of funding

Surprise, surprise.

Yesterday, I wrote about the team of Israeli scientists who said they would have a cure for all cancers within a year.

In the piece, I said:

While they may have found a successful application for their new drug, this is nothing more than an advertisement for their product, likely with the goal of finding investors to give them more money.

And:

There’s also the whole issue of them “not publishing their research” that indicates this is an advertisement for investors more than anything else.

And today, a report from the Times of Israel confirms it.

I’m not saying that I can predict the future, I’m just saying I’m not terrible at detecting bullshit.

Dr. Ilan Morad, who is the CEO of Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies (the company conducting the research), said that instead of publishing their research for peer review, they want to focus on “advancing the research and developing more targeting peptides. It takes a lot of work and we are a small company.”

In regards to publishing, he added that “We can’t afford it. Publishing an article takes a lot of effort and a lot of funds, and this we can’t afford.”

It’s like a shitty Nigerian scammer, only they’re asking you to send them $5000 now but they won’t give you the $50 million for another year or so.

According to the Times of Israel, he added: “If we were a big company with a lot of funds, that would be the first thing we would do. If I have $100,000 what do I spend it on?” he asked. “Advancing the research and finding more and more targeting peptides, or doing many experiments to write an article? What would you do, if you had to choose?”

I would like to announce that I have also found a cure for cancer, but first I need everyone reading this to send $10 my PayPal account. I promise to share my secret in a year or so!

As the Times of Israel pointed out, real research that has actually been researched that holds real scientific value doesn’t cost anything to be published. The only reason it would cost money to publish in a journal is if the journal itself charges you – which isn’t a thing for legitimate journals. The alternative are referred to as “predatory journals” or “pay to play” journals, as the fantastic Steve Novella wrote about in greater detail for Science Based Medicine.

I fully expected to have to wait a year or so to check in on this “story”, and was pretty surprised that they played their hand so quickly.

Yesterday, I said that I wasn’t calling them liars. Today, I’m leaning more towards calling them lying liars who got caught lying.

Cover image credit: iStockphoto