NIH workers see red over revised rules for conflicts of interest

摘要

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is facing a revolt by employees over its tightened rules on conflicts of interest. The restrictions, which dramatically alter apolicy set up in 1995, were announced on 1 February (see Nature 433,557; 2005). They are the result of intense pressure on the NIH from an angry Congress, after a series of embarrassing disclosures revealed that a number of senior agency scientists had been making hundreds of thousands of dollars as consultants for commercial firms.