NIH Criminal Investigation for Conflict of Interest by Dept of Justice.

[Guest guest]

House Panel Examines HHS, NIH Responses to Conflicts of Interest

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Sept. 13 held a _hearing_

(http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/09132006hearing2020/hearing.htm)

entitled " Continuing Ethics and Management

Concerns at NIH and the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. " The hearing

was

another in a series of sessions examining allegations of conflict of interest

by NIH intramural scientists. Much of the committee's attention was directed

at the delay in response by the Commissioned Corps to two high profile cases

involving Corps members employed at the NIH that the HHS Office of Inspector

General had recommended for further investigation. Agwunobi, M.D., HHS

Assistant Secretary of Health, testified the Commissioned Corps had delayed a

board of inquiry in one of these cases at the request of the Department of

Justice, which had undertaken a criminal investigation into the individual.

Committee members also criticized the laxity of punishments handed out by NIH

to a number of intramural scientists who had violated prior ethics rules by

failing to seek approval or even report consulting relationships with

industry, failing to take annual leave while consulting, or consulting on areas

that

overlapped with their official duties. Raynard Kington, M.D., Principal

Deputy Director of NIH, testified on the ethics reforms that NIH has

implemented

in response to the committee's earlier inquiries and the agency's own

internal investigations and the actions NIH took to discipline the scientists

in que

stion.

Information:

Dave , Senior Associate Vice President

AAMC Office of Governmental Relations

_dbmoore@..._ (mailto:dbmoore@...)

(202) 828-0525