BETHESDA, Md. — Federal ethics lawyers announced Monday that scores of high-level scientists at the National Institutes of Health will now be required to publicly disclose any income from drug companies or other outside employers.
Lawyers from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics said that all deputy directors, scientific directors and clinical-research directors at the NIH would now have to state their outside income and other assets on a yearly basis. A total of 66 senior officials were immediately affected by the change, which was put into effect Feb. 6 following a request by NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni.
The announcement came at the first meeting of the newly formed NIH blue-ribbon panel on conflict-of-interest policies. The panel was formed after a report in the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 7 documented hundreds of payments of consulting fees and stock options from biomedical companies to NIH employees. The Times also reported that more than 94% of the top-paid employees at NIH were not required to disclose their outside income on forms available to the public.
The panel also learned Monday that the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services had opened an examination of NIH's conflict-of-interest policies. The inspector general oversees federal health programs and is empowered to subpoena documents and to question witnesses, and also may impose civil or administrative penalties.
Edgar M. Swindell, the department's associate general counsel, encouraged the 10-member panel "to evaluate whether NIH employees should hold 'drug or biotech' stocks or be allowed to consult with companies in these industries."
Swindell also questioned the NIH policy of allowing employees to consult for pay "with various companies involved in scientific research."
"Should this practice be stopped?" Swindell asked. "What effect would such a prohibition have on recruitment and retention of eminent scientists? If not a total ban for all employees, should senior employees, at least, be subject to such a ban?"
Zerhouni, the opening speaker before the panel, said that he intended to "leave no stone unturned" in an effort to strengthen the NIH's ethics policies.
However, Zerhouni discouraged what he termed "one-size-fits-all" or "blanket" remedies. He said that, while "the public has the right to see whether its resources are directed for private gain," he also did not want to jeopardize arrangements that help "translate" ideas into worthy medical treatments.
