A March 14, 2005 Los Angeles Times column by ACSH Director Henry I. Miller, M.D. addresses the question of whether banning all industry-associated scientists from advisory panels makes sense.
The National Institutes of Health has used a bazooka to kill a mosquito. And now the NIH is facing a revolt from its scientists, who are suffering collateral damage. The scientists are outraged by the draconian new NIH regulations that bar them from part-time consulting for biomedical companies (paid or unpaid), restrict their service on company boards, limit their acceptance of prizes, and prohibit senior staff members (and their families) from owning stock in drug, medical device, or biotech companies.
These new restrictions are an overreaction to congressional displeasure over revelations that several dozen NIH employees (out of a workforce of more than 17,000) failed to comply fully with the old ethics rules requiring them to disclose outside activities to the NIH. Several top scientists reportedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees but failed to report this outside employment. There have been, however, no allegations of substantive wrongdoing; no claims of, for instance, manipulated stock values, fraud, injured patients, or compromised federal research. What this boils down to is the perception but not the reality of possible misconduct... (FULL ARTICLE)
