'[A] commission led by medical professor Magne Nylenna of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim submitted its findings to the state Ministry of Health in December 2004. Commission proposals included a call for jail terms of up to one year for anyone caught forging medical research.

"We're surprised that nothing more has been done with this proposal," Nylenna told Aftenposten. New Health Minister Sylvia Brustad said the commission's work will now be re-evaluated, adding that "there's a need for new regulation in this area."

Brustad was calling in top health officials for a meeting on Monday, after it emerged last week that an otherwise respected health professional who's a doctor, dentist and researcher at Norway's Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet had faked an article in the respected publication The Lancet. The 44-year-old researcher, whom Aftenposten and several other Norwegian media outlets have chosen not to identify, has admitted to fabricating what he claimed was a survey of more than 400 patients.'