Fetal tissue supplier billed $765 procurement fee per organ, warn paperwork could imply illegal sales: records

FIRST ON FOX: Newly obtained public records show Cercle Allocation Services billed a UCLA research operation a $765 procurement-service fee tied to each individual liver and thymus specimen, while warning in internal correspondence that certain billing language could improperly imply the tissue itself was being sold.

The records, obtained from UCLA through a California Public Records Act request made on behalf of Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden, include purchase orders and correspondence between the university and Cercle Allocation Services.

An internal UCLA order form identifies the purchasing operation as part of the David Geffen School of Medicine’s Division of Hematology-Oncology and references the “Mouse Core.” UCLA redacted the names and other identifying information of researchers from the record.

The records reviewed by Fox News Digital do not establish that UCLA or its researchers, procurement personnel or other employees, engaged in illegal or unethical conduct in connection with the transactions.

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FILE – Cercle supplies human fetal tissue for biomedical research. (Shane Collins, Northwestern University)

One UCLA purchase order lists seven individually numbered liver and thymus specimens at a $765 unit amount apiece, totaling $5,355. Another lists five specimens from Aug. 18, 2023, each carrying the same $765 amount, for a total of $3,825. Additional purchase orders reflect the same per-specimen amount.

Cercle objected to the purchase orders’ tax treatment and asked UCLA to reissue them, telling the university that the charges reflected procurement services and that sales tax should not be applied. Cercle said tax language could improperly imply that the specimens themselves were being sold.

Cercle does supply human fetal tissue for biomedical research. Peer-reviewed scientific literature has identified the company as the source of human fetal liver tissue used by researchers, providing independent evidence of the type of procurement business described by CMP.

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FILE – UCLA redacted the names and other identifying information of researchers from the record. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

CMP identified the liver and thymus specimens in the UCLA purchase orders as fetal tissue. Fox News Digital has not independently verified that the tissue associated with these specific purchase orders was fetal. The purchase orders identify the organs by type, sample number and date, but do not themselves describe them as fetal.

The records do not establish that the payments were illegal. Cercle characterized the money as fees for procurement services rather than payments for the tissue itself.

But correspondence shows the company was particularly concerned about how those payments were described.

“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 manager continued.

The same email said notations referring to sales tax would imply Cercle was “selling the items received,” which the company said were “illegal to sell.” Cercle instead instructed UCLA that purchase orders should authorize payment for its services while tying individual sample numbers and dates to a unit amount of $765.

The correspondence shows UCLA subsequently prepared revised purchase orders after Cercle objected to the tax 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)

One Cercle email said a July invoice totaling $5,355 for procurements on three dates had already been “processed and paid.” The company also asked UCLA to replace other purchase orders containing tax language, including one covering five procurements from Aug. 18 worth a combined $3,825.

Federal law prohibits knowingly acquiring, receiving or otherwise transferring human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration,” if the transfer affects interstate commerce, while allowing “reasonable payments” associated with transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control or storage.

The records reviewed by Fox News Digital do not establish that Cercle or UCLA violated that prohibition.

Daleiden contends the documents raise questions about whether the uniform $765 charges represented permissible reimbursement for procurement-related costs.

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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 Fox News Digital he believes the structure raises questions about whether the payments reflected the procurement-related costs permitted under federal law.

Documents reviewed by Fox News Digital 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, as well as 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.

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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 Fox News Digital 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 connection with the transactions reflected in the public records obtained by CMP.

UCLA and Cercle Allocation Services did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.