BETHESDA, Md. — The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, said that rules he announced Tuesday banning all staff scientists from taking drug-company fees would help the federal research agency set the highest ethical example.
Referring to the pervasive intermingling of pharmaceutical marketing with medical research nationally, Zerhouni said the time had come for the NIH to provide "at least one source of public health information in the country that can be completely trusted."
"We believe that we need to hold NIH and ourselves as scientists at NIH to a higher standard, because we do have national public health responsibilities," he told a news conference at the agency's headquarters.
The new restrictions, agreed on by Zerhouni and senior officials with the Office of Government Ethics and the Department of Health and Human Services, are intended to be permanent, he said.
According to a summary issued by the NIH, employees also would be banned from moonlighting for research institutions receiving NIH funds, for health insurers and for "related trade, professional or similar associations." And virtually all staff scientists at the NIH would be prohibited from holding investments in biomedical companies.
Zerhouni, 53, said that his endorsement of the restrictions marked a turnabout.
For the better part of the last year, the NIH director had fought against imposing an across-the-board ban on industry consulting, saying that the paid arrangements generally helped translate scientific discoveries into medical remedies for patients.
"I've changed my mind," Zerhouni said.
"I'm not confident that we can continue to pretend that we have a system that works," he told reporters. "We will never go back to the old rules -- that's for sure."
Last year, Zerhouni supported banning only the most senior officials at NIH, including the directors of the agency's research centers and institutes, from moonlighting for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The vast majority of the NIH's more than 5,000 staff scientists should be allowed to work for the companies, Zerhouni had said, because those employees did not have the power to dispense research grants.
In explaining his change of position, Zerhouni pointed to evidence brought to his attention over the last 14 months. He cited reports published in December 2003 by the Los Angeles Times as raising "real concerns" that prompted him last year to appoint an advisory committee focused on conflict-of-interest issues.
