HHS decertifies organ procurement network over harvesting allegations
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Newly released public records indicate that Cercle Allocation Services charged a UCLA research operation a $765 procurement fee for each liver and thymus specimen. In internal correspondence, the company cautioned that certain wording on the invoices could wrongly suggest that the human tissue itself was being sold.
The documents were obtained from UCLA through a California Public Records Act request filed on behalf of Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden. They include purchase orders and email correspondence exchanged between UCLA and Cercle Allocation Services.
A UCLA internal order form identifies the purchasing unit as part of the David Geffen School of Medicine’s Division of Hematology-Oncology and refers to the “Mouse Core.” The university redacted researchers’ names and other identifying details from the records.
The records reviewed by News Media do not show that UCLA, its researchers, procurement staff or other employees acted illegally or unethically in connection with the transactions.
Cercle supplies human fetal tissue for biomedical research. (Shane Collins/Northwestern University/File)
One UCLA purchase order lists seven individually numbered liver and thymus specimens at $765 each, for a total of $5,355. A second order, dated Aug. 18, 2023, lists five specimens at the same per-unit rate, totaling $3,825. Other purchase orders show the identical $765 charge per specimen.
Cercle challenged the tax treatment on the purchase orders and asked UCLA to issue corrected versions. The company said the charges represented procurement services, not sales of tissue, and argued that applying sales tax could create the misleading impression that the specimens themselves had been sold.
Cercle does provide human fetal tissue for biomedical research. Peer-reviewed studies have identified the company as the source of human fetal liver tissue used in research, offering independent support for the type of procurement operation described by CMP.
UCLA redacted the names and other identifying information of researchers from the record. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/File)
CMP described the liver and thymus specimens in the UCLA purchase orders as fetal tissue. News Media has not independently confirmed that the tissue covered by those specific orders was fetal. The documents identify the organs by type, sample number and date, but do not label them as fetal tissue.
The records do not prove that the payments were unlawful. Cercle described the charges as procurement service fees rather than compensation for the tissue itself.
However, the correspondence makes clear that the company was highly focused on how the transactions were characterized.
“The overriding issue is the use of terminology that we must not use due to their improper implication that we are selling taxable items, which we are not,” a Cercle accounts manager wrote in September 2023. “Due to the nature of our business, we must be very careful and clear that we invoice fees for our procurement services.”
The email added that references to sales tax could suggest Cercle was “selling the items received,” which the company said were “illegal to sell.” Instead, Cercle directed UCLA to authorize payments for procurement services while linking each sample number and date to a $765 unit charge.
The correspondence indicates that UCLA later issued revised purchase orders after Cercle objected to the tax-related language.
David Daleiden, a defendant in an indictment stemming from a secret investigation of his undercover videos of Planned Parenthood, stands in a Houston courtroom Feb. 4, 2016. (David J. Phillip/AP)
In one email, Cercle said a July invoice totaling $5,355 for procurements conducted on three dates had already been “processed and paid.” The company also asked UCLA to replace additional purchase orders that contained tax language, including one for five procurements dated Aug. 18 and valued at $3,825.
Federal law prohibits knowingly acquiring, receiving or transferring human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration” when the transaction affects interstate commerce. The law permits “reasonable payments” connected to transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control or storage.
The records reviewed by News Media do not establish that Cercle or UCLA violated the federal prohibition.
Daleiden contends the documents raise questions about whether the uniform $765 charges represented permissible reimbursement for procurement-related costs.
He pointed to the uniform $765 amount UCLA assigned to individual specimens on the purchase orders, including multiple organs listed on the same date. Daleiden told News Media he believes the structure raises questions about whether the payments reflected the procurement-related costs permitted under federal law.
Documents reviewed by News Media do not contain Cercle’s invoices or underlying cost calculations and do not establish whether the $765 amount exceeded reasonable procurement-related expenses.
Daleiden also said UCLA did not produce Cercle’s invoices in response to the public records request.
The May 2025 request sought the original and most recent materials associated with UCLA IRB No. 11-002504 and records and communications from 2023 forward between the authors of a specified UCLA study and Advanced Bioscience Resources or Cercle. The request covered records, including emails, text messages, notes and fetal tissue logs.
UCLA later said its departments had completed their search and that the September 2026 production represented the final batch of non-exempt responsive records. The university said it redacted certain researcher identities because of concerns about threats and harassment involving sensitive research.
Records also show the UCLA-Cercle relationship continued into 2025.
A February 2025 Cercle ticket involving UCLA was titled “Liver and brain.” Cercle responded March 3 that it had been “unable to fulfill your request today” and canceled the ticket. The records do not specify that the requested tissue was fetal or establish that any brain tissue was ultimately procured or transferred.
Daleiden has spent years investigating fetal tissue procurement after CMP released undercover videos involving Planned Parenthood officials in 2015. His recording operation later became the subject of a California criminal case.
Kamala Harris’ office opened the investigation while she was California attorney general. Charges were later filed under Attorney General Xavier Becerra. In April 2026, a California judge dismissed the final charge and expunged the case.
The records reviewed by News Media do not establish that the UCLA-Cercle transactions violated federal law. UCLA and Cercle have not been accused or charged by authorities with illegal conduct in the transactions reflected in the public records obtained by CMP.
UCLA and Cercle Allocation Services did not respond to News Media’s requests for comment.
