Catastrophic examples of data integrity problems can occur in any industry.

Takada Corporation

In 2015, U. S. safety automobile regulators slapped the Takada Corporation with a $70 million fine after its defective vehicle airbags killed at least 24 people, injured at least 300 more, and resulted in the biggest recall in automobile history, affecting 33 auto brands and more than 100 million vehicles—some of which are still on the road with defective airbags.

Shrapnel from Defective Inflators

Here’s what happened… The Takada Corp. attempted to reduce its costs by using a less expensive chemical in their airbags, which resulted in the potential danger of spraying shrapnel from defective inflators when the airbag deployed.

The company was aware of these issues and deliberately hid them from inspectors.

Misled

According to regulators, Takada had misled them dating back to at least 2009, including providing misleading test reports—and even removing some test reports to artificially reduce variability in airbag inflator performance.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesman Brian Thomas said, “Takada provided inaccurate, incomplete, and misleading information to regulators for nearly a decade.

Global Crisis

Had they told the truth, Takada could have prevented this from becoming a global crisis.”

Now that we’ve examined a data integrity failure outside of the life sciences industry, let’s focus on a real-world example within life sciences.