NIH toughens ethics rules and procedures

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is considering drastic changes to its rules and procedures for ethics following the disclosure of high level NIH-funded scientists receiving consulting fees and stock options from biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. NIH director Dr Elias Zerhouni recently appeared before a congressional committee examining the NIH’s lax ethics regulations and outlined a series of corrective measures. These include prohibiting senior NIH employees involved in extramural funding decisions from entering paid consulting agreements with industry and accepting payment in the form of stock or stock options....