Legislator accuses prof of plagiarizing report
BY PETER BOYER
Staff Writer
A prominent instructor in the School of Medicine has been accused of “plagiarizing and doctoring" an unpublished state report in order to influence the outcome of a national debate over consumer drug pricing by Assemblyman Barry Keene (D-Eureka), chairman of the Assembly Health Committee.
The accused faculty member. Earl W. Brian, was the secretary’ of health and welfare in the Reagan Administration. He resigned from that post a year ago when he sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate
When Brian lost the race, he was offered a teaching position
atthe university, and he founded the university’s Center for Health Services Research, which he now directs.
Keene told the Daily Trojan that Brian has used that post and his affiliation with the university to influence the decisions of Caspar Weinberger, secretary of health, education, and welfare, in the consumer drugs issue.
The issue centers around an experimental drug-substitution plan, conducted at the state level in the Medi-Cal, (state health insurance) program. Under Medi-Cal, lower priced drugs were substituted for expensive brand-name drugs in an effort to save cost to the government.
The federal government is
iV
NO SMALL TASK—No, not holding a lantern. Finding an honest man. Rumor has it that the lamp lights when Diogenes spots one of those rare creatures passing Mudd Hall. If only he could look to his right. . . DT photo by Shuji Ito.
Two who violated code still in race for council
Although Mike Abell, a commuter candidate for the President’s Advisory Council, and Jerry Papazian, a Row candidate, were found to have violated a section of the Election Code, they have not been disqualified from the election.
The distribution of ballots for the election has been delayed and they will be sent out today.
“The reason for the delay was that it took longer to print than we had planned,” said Marjie Lambert, chairman of the Student Elections CCommittee.
The ballots will be sent to the student’s local addresses.
The ballots should be postmarked no later than April 25. The deadline for the materials to be returned is April 29, when they will be counted.
If students do not receive their ballots in the mail, they may vote in Student Union 201 on April 25 and 28.
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looking at California’s plan as a possible means to save money, should Congress adopt a national health-insurance plan.
The drug-substitution idea is vehemently opposed by drug manufacturers, who could lose billions of dollars if the plan is deemed effective.
The drug-substitution plan has already cost the manufacturers $2 billion. But what they fear most is the potential loss of consumers who catch onto the idea and demand the lower-priced drugs.
“There are billions of dollars involved in California alone,” Keene said. “Translated nationally, you’re talking about big money. This is the second most profitable industry in the nation.”
Keene said that Brian somehow obtained a state paper which evaluated the California system, and altered it to suggest that the administration of drug substitution precluded any significant savings to the consumer in this case.
The state report was prepared by John C. Keith, a research analyst for the State Department of Health. Keith told the Los Angeles Times that he prepared the report on state time at the direction of Stephen F. Gibbens, the head of a special research unit at the State Health Department. Gibbens is a former associate of Brian’s.
Keene said Brian somehow obtained the unpublished report, changed a few portions, and submitted it to HEW under the title:
THE CALIFORNIA MAC-LIKE EXPERIENCE BY EARL W BRIAN, M.D. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH (MAC stands for Maximum Allowable Cost, HEW's proposed version of drug substitution.)
Keith's report was divided into four parts titled “History,” "Methodology,” “Findings” and “Discussion.” Keene said Brian reproduced the report verbatim,
except for a few key changes.
Where Keith’s report said the program demonstrated “savings, which, while less than anticipated, were nevertheless significant,” Brian’s version said the program demonstrated “savings which were significantly less than anticipated.”
Keith’s report showed a 7.5% savings in cases where drug substitutions could be made, which, when added to the total prescription costs, effected a 2.5% overall savings in drug costs.
(Keene explained that low-cost substitute drugs were only available in one-fourth of the cases in which a doctor prescribed a drug.)
But Brian’s report neglected to include the 7.5% savings on the substitute drugs, and only reported the overall savings of 2.5%.
Keith’s report set the cost of administering the program at about $40,000, a “little administrative expense,” but Brian deleted that portion of the report.
(continued on poge 10)
Daily fp Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVII, Number 110 Los Angeles, California	Friday, April 18, 1975
!' 6 PAC commuter candidates say opponent ineligible to run
BY ARNOLD BOATNER
Six candidates running for election to Letters Arts, and Sciences seats on the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) have charged that one commuter candidate is not eligible to run in the LAS constituency.
The students, who are also commuter candidates, filed a complaint with the Election Commission on Wednesday. The students are: Robert Gach, a junior and a Letters, Arts and Sciences interdivi-sional major in urban studies; David Blackmar, a junior in philosophy; Mike Peterson, a junior in political science; Roger Obregon, a freshman in public administration; Narbik Manukian, a junior in natural sciences and mathematics; and Ed Morgan, a junior in biopsychology.
The students charged that John T. Nakaoka, a junior running as a commuter candidate in the LAS constituency, is registered as a business student.
A check with the Registrar’s Office confirmed that Nakaoka was registered as a business major as of the start of the spring semester.
Nakaoka is running for the PAC on the Economic Survival Plan platform. The students who filed the complaint are running in the election as representatives of the Commuter Students Organization.
“This is of concern to us not only as candidates but as members of an organization (USC commuters) who in the past have tried to assure commuters that the people representing them are doing just that and are qualified,” Gach said.
The students also said that Nakaoka had stated in a statement filed with the Election Commission that he had been vice-president of the Commuter Students Organization.
After the commission had checked the validity of the statement by Nakaoka his remark was censored. Blackmar said that Nakaoka had never been vice-president ofthe organization and had not been active in the organization for at least two years.
Responding to the complaint filed against him, Nakaoka said that he is qualified to run on the LAS slate because he is a political science major as well as a business major.
He said that due to a mix-up at the Registrar’s Office. he is not officially listed as a political science major.
With regard to the censorship of his election statement. Nakaoka said that while he was on the Commuter Students Organization, he was under the impression that he was vice-president.
However, Nakaoka said, he is now being told that he was only a member ofthe organization’s steering committee.
“To say that I lied and misled people is unfair,” he said.
In a separate but related development, a complaint has been filed against Craig Coleman, Mike Hughes and Don Wilson, Row candidates running on the Economic Survival Plan platform for seats on the PAC.
The suit was filed by Bill Mitchell, Thomas Walper, and David Troescher, who charged the three candidates with violating the student literature code by putting campaign literature in mail boxes on the Row without the required prior approval.
Hughes and Coleman could not be reached for comment. Wilson said that he was not aware ofthe fact that he had been charged and did not have any comment at the present time.
International Night features many cultures
BY BILL TASSI
They came from all over the world. From India. From Thailand. Africa. The Middle East. Their destination was not the United Nations—it was Bovard Auditorium, and the event was not a diplomatic mission but an international cultural night.
There was a sense of excitement between the large audience and approximately 70 performing students on International Night Wednesday.
The performers entertained with music and dancing of their native cultures. The people were lulled by Hawaiians, Thais and Tahitians; enchanted by the music of India and the Philippines; and were almost brought to their feet by the Ukrainians.
The students shed their Brooks
Brothers and Levis for delicate, brightly-colored Oriental silks and the desert cloaks of the Middle East.
The Kosak dances performed by 12 Ukrainian students were most enthusiastically received in the three-hour program, prompting calls for an encore.
The students from the Middle East offered belly-dancing lessons to audience volunteers. Two girls did participate—Diane McNicholas and Emily Sanford, both juniors. They said they thought it was “great” and were deemed “naturals” at belly dancing by their instructors.
The fifth Annual Von KleinSmid International Festival, of which International night was the highlight, is a major event of the year when USC students, both foreign and American, can
congregate together on a large scale.
The second major event of the festival, the Food Fair was held Monday in Alumni Park. Akrim Masri, a student from the Middle East and master of ceremonies for the International Night, said the students dished out 4,000 servings of exotic foods, earning $1,800
Despite only three weeks of preparation and one rehearsal, Jerry Wulk, director of the Office of International Students and Scholars, called the evening a huge success.
John Wasson, also ofthe office, was pleased with the “good geographic representation of the audience.” Although not constituting the majority, there were a number of Americans in attendance.