NIH Directors No Longer Drug Firm Consultants

WASHINGTON — Top-level officials at the National Institutes of Health -- amid sharp criticism from congressional leaders -- have stopped accepting consulting fees and stock options from drug companies, the agency's leader told a Senate hearing on Thursday.

"As of this moment, no director has any outside biotechnology or pharmaceutical relationship," said the leader of the NIH, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, referring to the directors of the agency's research institutes and centers. "Those have been stopped."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services and education, nevertheless told Zerhouni and other NIH officials at the hearing that "there are really major problems here." Specter, who reminded the officials that he had helped double the NIH budget in recent years, added, "I believe there will have to be very substantial remedial steps taken."

Citing paid arrangements between biomedical companies and senior NIH scientists disclosed last month by The Times, Specter asked if ongoing consulting deals for all NIH employees could be suspended immediately.

Specter also voiced dissatisfaction with policies and decisions that have exempted about 94% of the NIH's highest-paid employees from having to publicly disclose payments from drug companies or other outside employers.

"Is there any reason why a governmental employee making as much as the vice president should not be required to fill out a public financial disclosure form?" Specter asked.

"This subcommittee is prepared to do it if you don't. And we're prepared to get into changes in law, if you don't come up with something that's adequate."

The NIH is the federal government's center for medical research on humans. Its top scientists are among the highest paid employees in the government, and its studies can affect the commercial viability of new drugs and the stock prices of biomedical companies.

Government lawyers at the hearing said new regulations probably would have to be enacted to achieve Specter's goals. An ethics attorney representing the Department of Health and Human Services, Edgar M. Swindell, said that the NIH could adopt restrictions in place at the Food and Drug Administration, where employees are prohibited from owning stock in companies that may be affected by the agency's decisions.