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BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
16 July, 2005: A recent review by the National Institutes of Health found that forty-four government scientists have violated ethics rules on collaborating with pharmaceutical companies in research activities. Nine of the scientists may have violated criminal laws, the report said.
NIH has been investigating 103 people who have been accused of ethics violations, of which 37 have been cleared.
The review found that the 44 scientists had either failed to disclose income from outside work, had failed to get permission to consult or had done the work on government time rather than their own. Eight of the scientists no longer work for the institutes and are not subject to administrative punishment, the review said.
It did not describe what criminal laws might have been violated in the nine cases that were turned over to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.
All consulting deals between agency researchers and drug or biotechnology companies were banned in February. The ban also included top scientists owning shares in such companies, accepting gifts worth more than $200 and accepting many research prizes.
The investigations were conducted following disclosures that some government researchers were paid thousands of dollars by drug makers.
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