Stealth Merger: Drug Companies and Government Medical Research

[realFedUp]

(looks like another Pulitzer for Willman et al)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nih7dec07,1,7108097.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Stealth Merger: Drug Companies and Government Medical Research
Some of the National Institutes of Health's top scientists are also collecting paychecks and stock options from biomedical firms. Increasingly, such deals are kept secret.

By David Willman
Times Staff Writer
Dec. 7, 2003

snip-
Increasingly, outside payments to NIH scientists are being hidden from public view. Relying in part on a 1998 legal opinion, NIH officials now allow more than 94% of the agency's top-paid employees to keep their consulting income confidential.

As a result, the NIH is one of the most secretive agencies in the federal government when it comes to financial disclosures. A survey by The Times of 34 other federal agencies found that all had higher percentages of eligible employees filing reports on outside income. In several agencies, every top-paid official submitted public reports.

The trend toward secrecy among NIH scientists goes beyond their failure to report outside income. Many of them also routinely sign confidentiality agreements with their corporate employers, putting their outside work under tight wraps.

Gallin, Germain, Katz, Schlom and Trent each said that their consulting deals were authorized beforehand by NIH officials and had no adverse effect on their government work. Eastman declined to comment for this article.

continued

[realFedUp]

1. This is a BFS folks

It's a really long piece, but it's one
you need to read and contact your Congresspeople
about to clean up the NIH.

[realFedUp]

2. and yet again on DU

this fucking amazing investigative piece goes
unreplied to so we can all comment on Ozzy's
drug daze...
I'm as guilty as anyone here, but come on folks,
this SHOULD be the talk today.
NIH scientists taking money from the drug
companies whose products they are researching.
Can you say...Conflict of interest?

[FormerOstrich]

7. RealFedUp,

You are correct. I don't know about other's but so many things just leave me speechless.

Of course this is wrong. No I don't believe being paid by the private sector wouldn't influence thier government work.

I have just been so overwhelmed by it all the past three years that I no longer can keep up with the outrages. There are so damn many of them! The constant onslaught makes you want to duck and cover. So thank you for the gentle reminder that sticking the head in the sand is not the answer.

:kick:

[realFedUp]

10. Daily shock and awe

I know Former Ostrich...I feel the same way you do...
every day brings some new revelation that our nation
isn't playing on any moral highground and personal
responsibility is just code for getting yours before
anyone finds out.

[Just Me]

15. It is overwhelming,...

,...the freakin' number of conflicts. It is difficult and frustrating to discover so many concealed abuses.

I'll get this out and about right now.

Thanks for kicking this up, RealFedUp!!

[Jester_11218]

3. VERY Imprtant story.

Kick N/T

[DeepModem Mom]

4. You're right, realFedUp....

I saw this headline on the LA Times webpage, and somehow its meaning, and implications, didn't click, until I saw your comment and read the article. This is life-and-death stuff, and unbelievably wrong. (And, as you say, good reporting from the Times.)

[BeHereNow]

5. DISGUSTING!

This is OUTRAGEOUS!
KICK!

[flamingyouth]

6. This is horrible

But why am I not really that surprised? It just seems part of the wholesale looting of our tax dollars by the BFEE. :grr:

[KT2000]

8. Other industries too?

While this article examines drug industry ties, the lack of accountability would allow other industries to work in the dark too.

The past director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (part of NIH) has stated: Genetics loads the gun; environment pulls the trigger.

Medicine has chosen to treat the illnesses with profitable products rather than stop the environment from pulling the trigger. In most cases, "the environment" really means pollution from powerful industries and dangerous products.
This is the power of capitalist medicine.

Thanks for sharing this article.

[lostnfound]

9. Gives another reason to re-think the autism / vaccine links, too..

The extent to which drug-company funded studies are accepted relatively blindly by the government institutions that are supposed to protect us is a national scandal.

I watched the C-span Burton hearings on the subject last year for a couple of hours, and it is really upsetting to realize that extremely sloppy, if not intentionally misleading, studies are being touted by one agency after another with such potentially serious consequences.

This ain't our parents'/grandparents' government anymore.

[realFedUp]

11. for those who missed this story

It's a good day to contact your Congressperson
on this matter.

[Cooley Hurd]

12. Blitzer hit Tommy Thompson with it today on CNN

Wolf quoted the LA Times story, and Tommy claimed he's heard nothing about the accusations, and proceeded to say the NIH would never allow such conflicts of interest (gasp!). Wolf advised Tommy to read the story before commenting further... it was great!!! (And surprising, coming from Repug apologist Blitzer)

This story has legs, RFU!!!

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Wolf? You're kidding!

[Cooley Hurd]

14. Couldn't believe it either - he slapped Tommy with the Times story...

...like a cold mackerel upside the head. It was hilarious because it was the first TT had supposedly heard of it, so TT was not prepared to discuss it...

It was a beautiful thing!

[realFedUp]

17. Darn, I missed that

I hadn't seen any cover by local news on this
amazing story...it really needs a lot of push...
call your Congressperson and tell them this
needs to be dealt with.

[loudnclear]

16. Finally!!! Someone reports the truth...and it ain't pretty.

Not to mention the money these scientists get for "speaking engagements" endorsements, trips, and other boondogles AND all on government work time while they collect annual leave and pay from the taxpayer.

[cosmicdot]

18. kick

corporatism and corruption are destroying us