Cel-Sci Booster's Identity in Question

Updated with statement from Public Citizen.

VIENNA, Va. (TheStreet) -- The veracity of a recent article lauding an experimental H1N1 flu drug from Cel-Sci(CVM Quote) is in question because it appears its author may not be who he says he is.

The article's author, Dr. Pablo Romanus, says he is director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, a government watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.

But Public Citizen says it has no record of Romanus ever working for the group, either as a director or even as an outside consultant.

Public Citizen on Tuesday announced the following:

"An article touting a new H1N1 vaccine that appeared on the Web site American Chronicle identifies the author as someone who works for Public Citizen's Health Research Group. The problem is that the author, 'Dr. Pablo Romanus,' has never worked, consulted or contracted with Public Citizen in any way. In fact, we've never heard of Romanus and have no idea if he's even a real person."

Efforts to contact Romanus were not successful.

Romanus' Sept. 28 article, published by a Web site known as American Chronicle, says that the FDA convened a recent meeting in which several companies and groups presented data on new H1N1 drugs.

"So far only one proposed treatment has met the stringent safety and efficacy requirements to be fast tracked into human studies. That treatment was being developed by Virginia based, Cel-Sci Corporation and is based on their Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System," writes Romanus.

He adds, "Animal study results and technology data were compelling enough to make the FDA grant the company overnight approval to move directly into human trials of the treatment."

Cel-Sci representatives did not respond to questions for this article.

A Google search turns up very little on Romanus except links to his Sept. 28 article and a resume posted on the Web site LinkedIn.