Exhibit 116 ยท Agency debarment decision
Notice of Debarment and Action Referral Memorandum for Final Debarment, EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
NIAID awarded grant 1R01AI110964, 'Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,' to EcoHealth Alliance on 27 May 2014 (project period 1 June 2014 to 31 May 2019), with the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a consortium participant. From 2018 the award required immediate notification of any experiment producing virus growth more than 1 log above wild type. EcoHealth submitted its Year 5 progress report on 3 August 2021, nearly two years after it was due; NIH found that an experiment in it had possibly produced a greater than 1 log increase and that EcoHealth had not notified NIAID. HHS suspended EcoHealth on 15 May 2024 and debarred it for five years, through 14 May 2029, finding debarment necessary to protect the Federal Government's interests. The memorandum (para 35) says the experiments led to 'substantially greater mortality rates.' It lists as grounds the failure to follow the immediate-reporting requirement, the late progress report, an inaccurate claim that the Year 4 and Year 5 experiments were the same, failure to take active steps to obtain records from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the claim that a computer lockout caused the delay; NIH's forensic review contradicted the lockout claim (para 44). EcoHealth ended Peter Daszak's employment effective 6 January 2025.
- Source
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Suspension and Debarment Official
- Date
- 17 January 2025
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ARM_EHA_1.17.2025_Redacted.pdf
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- HHS document as released, redacted, by the House Committee on Oversight. The memorandum carries no date of its own; 17 January 2025 comes from the file name and the Committee's release. Parallel notice for Peter Daszak: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Dr.-Peter-Daszak-HHS-Notice_Jan-17-2025_Redacted.pdf; notice to EcoHealth: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Notice-_EHA_1.17.2025_Redacted.pdf