Greenwood Expands Investigation
Of NIH Consulting Fees
February 27, 2004 - As part of a continuing investigation
into management and ethics concerns at the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations Chairman James Greenwood (R-Pa.)
has requested information from the Department of Health and
Human Services regarding the amount of fees NIH employees
receive from drug companies for consulting outside their government
work.
In a Feb
25 letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, Chairman Greenwood
requested all dollar amounts of all consulting arrangements
(past and current) for NIH employees since January 1, 1999.
Chairman Greenwood noted that despite the Committee's specific
request for the dollar amount of monetary compensation of
each consulting arrangement, the listing provided Jan. 14
by NIH did not include this information. The letter states,
"It is my understanding that NIH will provide the dollar
amounts for current, open consulting arrangements…. However,
the Department's Office of General Counsel has informed the
Committee staff that it has not yet identified a legal basis
to obtain dollar amounts for most of the past, closed consulting
arrangements…. I am increasingly concerned that we will
be unable to resolve this issue in a timely fashion."
The letter also states "the NIH Director and I were
both surprised to learn that ethics counselors and others
at NIH who review and approve outside activity requests have
not been required to ask the applicant the amount and type
(e.g., cash, stock, or stock options) of income, compensation,
fees, remuneration, expenses, or reimbursement that is to
be received in connection with the proposed activity."
The letter notes that the department's Designated Agency Ethics
Official Jan. 27 directed all deputy ethics counselors and
ethics contacts to ask the applicant the amount and type (e.g.,
cash, stock, or stock options) of income, compensation, fees,
remuneration, expenses, or reimbursement that is to be received
in connection with the proposed activity.
In addition, the letter requests the department to provide
all records relating to any internal review or investigation
conducted in response to the Dec. 7, 2003, Los Angeles
Times article profiling six NIH officials about their
outside consulting arrangements with drug companies.
Information:
Dave Moore, Senior Director
AAMC Government Relations
dbmoore@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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