House Energy and Commerce chair Joe Barton (R-TX), the committee's ranking minority member John Dingell (D-MI), oversight subcommittee chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) have called on the National Institutes of Health to come clean on conflicts of interest at the agency. The Los Angeles Times reported that the letter is focused on the activities of NIH cancer researcher Dr. Thomas J. Walsh and involves his receipt of corporate support and his appearance at regulatory hearings related to his corporate sponsors.
The effort remains the tip of the larger iceberg. Current regulations address the issues of financial conflicts with for-profit organizations, but conflicts of interest inherent in both funding and professional advancement growing from support by NIH itself is a big (perhaps, bigger) concern because its subtlety has the same effect: determining policy that may support private interests and agendas more than the public good.
