NIH Is Pressured to Bar Drug Industry Stipends

In a 20-page report, the head of the Office of Government Ethics said that NIH was beset with a "permissive culture" and that firm, across-the-board restrictions were needed to restore public confidence in the nation's preeminent medical-research agency. A copy of the report, dated July 26, was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

The report is a setback for the director of NIH, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, who in June proposed banning agency directors and certain other top officials from taking industry payments while allowing most NIH scientists to continue to accept consulting deals.

The acceptance of drug company consulting fees by federal researchers at the NIH has raised questions about the ability of the agency to maintain the independence in its scientific inquiries.

Zerhouni's staff has conferred over the last six weeks with the Office of Government Ethics regarding his proposals, officials said. The office must approve or disapprove any new conflict-of-interest regulations.

The head of the Office of Government Ethics, Marilyn L. Glynn, said in the report that without tougher standards, NIH "could give the appearance that some level of misuse of office is tolerable."

The time had passed, she said, for trusting NIH leaders to make appropriate changes.

"Ceding authority to NIH officials to direct the NIH ethics program might be a viable arrangement if NIH had a history of adequately addressing the types of problems confronting NIH at this time," Glynn said. "Unfortunately, the opposite is true

Glynn said that recent sampling by her staff had found a "significant number" of outside arrangements involving NIH employees which "were not approved in a timely manner" by NIH management. Many other outside arrangements, she said, "appeared not to have been approved at all."

The report was addressed to an attorney with the Department of Health and Human Services, and was also sent to Zerhouni's office. A spokesman at NIH, John Burklow, said agency officials contended that "the strong policies we are developing will address the problems identified and we look forward to working with OGE."