$28 billion a year of US preclinical research is irreproducible

Researchers at the Global Biological Standards Institute and Boston University set out to put a price on that failure, and to find where in the research process it starts.

They estimated that about half of the US$56.4 billion spent each year on US preclinical research cannot be reproduced, roughly US$28 billion. Biological reagents and reference materials accounted for the largest share of the causes, 36.1 percent.

Study design came second at 27.6 percent. The authors pointed to misidentified or contaminated cell lines, estimated at 15 to 36 percent, and called for validated reagents and authentication throughout a study. The estimate carries wide bounds, but the ranking put materials first.

The biggest leak was the materials.