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May
27,
2004 HOUSE
SUBCOMMITTEE SKEPTICAL ABOUT NIH REFORMS
Changes to the National
Institutes of Health’s conflict-of-interest
rules proposed by an independent blue ribbon committee (see HABIT, April
27, 2004) may not go far enough to satisfy some of NIH’s congressional
critics. A May 12 hearing on the topic by the House Committee on Energy
and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations was “unusual
for its level of open hostility,” according to a May 13 article
in the Washington Post. Subcommittee members
questioned NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., and the co-chairs of
the blue ribbon
panel, Bruce Alberts, Ph.D., and Norman
Augustine, Ph.D., about the panel’s recommendations on award payments
and financial reporting by NIH employees. Some subcommittee members were
particularly interested in cash awards or prizes given to NIH employees,
saying that they might violate federal law and could be banned outright
even in cases where the prize was awarded by an university or institution
that could not benefit from the NIH’s employee’s direct influence. NIH employees should also make more detailed financial disclosures of
outside-source money, subcommittee members said. Several members criticized
the Department of Health and Human Services for not being more forthcoming
with documents related to potential cases of conflict of interest at
NIH. A draft of the NIH Blue Ribbon Panel report is now available here.
To listen to the Webcast archives of the May 12 subcommittee hearing,
as well as a follow-up hearing on May 18, go here and here. |
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