Lawmaker weighs bill to address NIH conflicts of interest

House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., said Thursday he is considering drafting legislation to address findings of potential conflicts of interest at the National Institutes of Health.

An investigation of NIH has uncovered cases of questionable awards and speaking fees given to scientists involved in grant-making and the extensive use of a federal law that allows higher salaries for temporary employees. After a series of discussions, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni is making changes, Greenwood said, including barring awards to scientists involved in the grant-making process.

These changes also include forbidding some scientists from serving on corporate boards or owning stock in drug or biotechnology companies, and increasing public disclosure of their outside income. Greenwood said he wants to remove existing salary caps and "let it go to market rate" but with an open and transparent system.

"I want to set up a system in which you ought to be able to pay people what you need to get them," he said.

Finding a vehicle for such legislation could be difficult. The obvious place would be an NIH reauthorization bill, which Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, has said he wants this year.

"So would I," said Greenwood. "I'd like to fly, too. But I don't think it's going to happen."

He said an NIH bill faces not only a fight over embryonic stem cell research but also "people will want to play the 'don't study sex' game," a reference to social conservatives' questioning of some NIH grants.