http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/202351p-1965230c.html

Health & Science: GAO says research community needs to prevent financial conflicts of interest

By LEIGH STROPE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (December 26, 2001 2:20 p.m. EST) - Universities and federal health officials must try harder to head off financial conflicts that could taint biomedical research and harm human subjects, a congressional review says.

The study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that researchers do not have to disclose their financial interests to independent review boards, even though the boards must evaluate projects for risks to human subjects.

The GAO said the five universities it examined kept information about research activities and financial interests in different offices and in different formats, "making it a challenge to ensure that conflicts of interest were appropriately managed and not overlooked."

The report said the schools had developed policies for financial conflicts of interest, but they were all different.

The issue is significant because collaborations between government-funded researchers and private industry are increasing. A 1980 law lets universities, nonprofit corporations and small businesses keep the patents and profits from their federally funded projects.

The budget of the National Institutes of Health, the main federal agency that funds biomedical research, grew from more than $3 billion in 1980 to more than $20 billion this year. Funding from drug companies grew even more rapidly, from $1.5 billion in 1980 to $22.4 billion in 2000.

The GAO recommended that federal health officials improve oversight and regulations governing financial interest, as well as help institutions identify and manage such conflicts.

Health and Human Services officials agreed with the report's findings and said efforts are under way to visit institutions to collect data and to analyze their conflict policies.

The universities studied were the University of California, Los Angeles; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Washington in Seattle; Washington University in St. Louis; and Yale University.

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., requested the investigation because of concerns that researchers or institutions were becoming too focused on financial rewards. Frist is a physician.

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