BETHESDA, Md. — In January 2003, Dr. Harvey G. Klein helped ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
He was joined by his fellow board members of Haemonetics Corp., a Massachusetts company that markets blood-filtering equipment. A color photo of Klein and the directors at the exchange's lectern, smiling with upraised thumbs, was published in the company's annual report.
As the top expert on blood transfusion at the National Institutes of Health, Klein is in an excellent position to ring the bell for many companies that make blood products.
A Harvard University graduate with a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, he was hired by the NIH in 1973. A decade later, he was named chief of the agency's Clinical Center blood bank. Now 61, he earns $215,000 a year as director of the NIH's Department of Transfusion Medicine.
Along the way, Klein joined the coterie of NIH scientists who won approval from the agency to consult for industry.
Confidential income disclosure documents that the NIH recently surrendered to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and other records examined by the Los Angeles Times show that from 1999 to this year Klein received $240,200 in consulting fees and 76,000 stock options from five blood products companies. Klein acknowledged in written responses for this article that several other firms also had paid him fees; he said that he properly reported the compensation to the NIH.
While taking industry's money and also working for the government, Klein helped shape policies and practices that directly affected his industry clients and patients. He participated as an expert at dozens of federal meetings that focused on uses of new blood- related products but did not publicly acknowledge his role as a paid consultant to any company, records show. Other experts did so voluntarily.
Klein also wrote an article for a major medical journal whose editors now say they would not have published if they had known about his company ties.
Blood Filtering
Blood experts have had a long debate over whether white cells should be filtered from blood for all transfusions. Proponents say such "universal" filtering would protect against infection and other complications. Opponents say it would squander hundreds of millions of dollars a year while benefiting companies that sell the filters. Hospitals already filter white cells for the most vulnerable patients.
