Surgisphere: the data firm in the eye of the hydroxychloroquine storm

The founder of Surgisphere Corp., a data analytics firm based outside Chicago, quoted Sun Tzu’s Art of War in remarks to Utah’s Western Governors University. “Opportunities multiply as they are seized," Sapan Desai told fellow graduates in 2012. Desai, who obtained an MBA and also holds a medical degree and a Ph.D., sought to apply the Chinese strategist’s advice to his own career. Now the 41-year-old surgeon and entrepreneur is at the center of a controversy with global health implications. On Thursday, doubts about data from Surgisphere prompted the retraction of two scientific articles, including an influential study in The Lancet that had shown antimalarial drugs promoted by President...