Brian Meshkin

In November 1999, Meshkin co-founded Internet incentives company Surfbuzz.com with his brother, Alex Meshkin.[1] Surfbuzz folded the following year after spending between $3 million and $4 million in seed money.[2][3][4]

Salugen, Inc., incorporated in April 2005,[5] sold dietary supplements and direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests — a relatively new business model that was lightly regulated at that time.[6] In June 2008, the California Department of Public Health issued cease-and-desist notices to 13 genetics companies, including Salugen, for improper marketing of DTC tests.[7][8][9] Salugen was ordered not to test Californians until it was licensed as a clinical laboratory in California, and to perform only validated tests ordered by a licensed physician.[7] On September 10, 2008, Salugen executives other than CEO Meshkin resigned, citing the firm's inability "to raise capital, adequately perform operational activities or compensate employees and vendors" under his direction.[10] Soon afterwards Salugen was acquired by Sherbrooke Equity A.G. Despite raising further capital on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Salugen was wound up the following year.

Meshkin founded Proove Biosciences in December 2009.[1] Proove Biosciences began marketing a test called the "Proove Opioid Risk test" (POR) which it claimed could predict with high accuracy which patients would become addicted to or misuse prescribed opioid pain pills. Other Proove products included Proove Pain Perception, Proove Opioid Response, and Proove Drug Metabolism.[11]

Proove Bioscience's business model involved practices that appeared to generate potential conflicts of interest. Proove Biosciences was running research programs out of hospital clinics. In fact, more than 90% of patients tested were enrolled on clinical studies administered by Proove.[11] Proove offered a payment to clinicians for each patient recruited to these studies. This arrangement could have given clinicians a financial incentive to enroll patients to research program, and thereby enrich Proove Biosciences by allowing insurance reimbursement for those patients.[12][13] Further concerns were raised when scientists and clinicians expressed reservations about the quality of the evidence supporting the POR.[11][13][14][15] Former employees said that Meshkin, who has no background in science, asserted control over the company's research program: "It was marketing. It wasn’t science."[13]

In May 2017, a whistleblower lawsuit filed against Proove Biosciences in 2015 by Bruce Gardner, a former employee, was unsealed.[16] The complaint alleges that Proove submitted false claims to Medicare in violation of the False Claims Act and federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The suit asserts that Proove billed for medically unnecessary genetic tests and engaged in a sophisticated kickback scheme with physicians.[16]

On June 7, 2017, the FBI raided the offices of Proove Biosciences in Irvine, CA, in relation to an investigation of health care fraud.[17] On August 7, 2017, Proove Biosciences was placed into court-ordered receivership. On August 31, 2017, it was reported that Meshkin was no longer CEO at Proove Biosciences.[18] On August 4, 2020, the former Vice President of Market Development for Proove, Donald Joseph Matthews, pled guilty in federal court to conspiring to pay physicians kickbacks to order genetic tests for Medicare beneficiaries in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute.[19]