AR-News: (U.S.) NIH ethics reforms and biomedical research

[Mary Finelli]

NIH TACKLING TRICKY ETHICS REFORM
Government Regulations and the Need for New Drugs Hamper Reform Campaign
The Scientist, Dana Wilkie, April 12, 2004


complete article at:
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/apr/prof1_040412.html


As the US Congress and others investigate conflict-of-interest allegations 
at the National Institutes of Health, ethics lawyers warn that reforms will 
not be easy, and questions remain about whether overly aggressive changes 
could hinder the practical application of biomedical research. At issue are 
NIH scientists' outside consulting relationships with drug and biotechnology 
companies that work with the agency. In December 2003 the Los Angeles Times 
reported that federal research leaders have acted as paid consultants for 
companies, while at the same time using their government positions to 
promote those companies, advise on the risks of company drugs, and make key 
decisions about NIH studies involving company products.

Some in the science community believe the arrangements were improper, 
raising questions of whether NIH can work in the public's interest if 
scientists are financially beholden to those with a stake in NIH decisions. 
"Government employees who do research in the public interest and who get 
public funds should not at the same time be developing corporate interests 
that could affect the research they do," says Sheldon Krimsky, a Tufts 
University ethicist and author of Science in the Private Interest: Has the 
Lure of Profits Corrupted Biomedical Research?

But others say that in the investigative fervor that has followed the 
allegations, with at least five federal inquiries underway, regulators and 
lawmakers may have lost perspective on the goal of NIH research.


A poll in 2004 by Research!America, a nonprofit alliance of 470 research 
organizations, found that 91% of Americans believe researchers in 
government, academia, and the drug industry should work together to develop 
new treatments and cures.

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