A joint investigation has revealed the death of a child during a gene-editing trial in Shanghai and a subsequent cover-up, prompting public outrage and scrutiny of China's medical research practices.

A six-year-old girl, identified by the pseudonym Mei, died during a gene-editing trial led by neuroscientist Zilong Qiu at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai. The trial, which was affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, resulted in the child's death from a severe immune reaction after researchers reportedly ignored warning signs from earlier animal trials. Following the incident, the research team concealed the death and omitted the data from a paper submitted to the journal Nature.

Financial Irregularities and Medical Corruption

The trial was marked by significant financial exchanges between the participants and the research team. Mei's parents, who paid for the experimental treatment, were asked to provide expensive gifts and direct payments to individual researchers. One team member received more than $130,000, and the family’s total expenditure for the trial exceeded $860,000. The researcher who received the largest payment returned the funds following the child's death.

Regulatory Environment and Past Scandals

This incident follows the 2018 He Jiankui scandal, in which a scientist edited the genomes of human embryos without proper authorization. While Zilong Qiu’s trial received approval from the hospital’s ethics board, the board appears to have been involved in the subsequent cover-up. The incident has highlighted broader concerns regarding medical corruption and the tendency within China's bureaucracy to suppress negative trial data to avoid scapegoating.