RESEARCH NEWS Volume 1 01.02.06

NATIONAL NEWS

NIH Announces Final Ethics Rules

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today final regulations regarding reporting of certain financial interests, stock divestiture, outside activities, and awards. The regulations were developed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in close collaboration with NIH, with the concurrence of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), the Federal agency that prescribes executive branch-wide ethics standards. The announcement came following a careful review of all comments about the interim ethics regulation submitted by NIH staff, the public, and scientific organizations.

Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., NIH Director, said, "We have a balanced set of conflict of interest rules that protect the integrity of NIH and its ability to provide the American public with an unbiased and trusted source of scientific and health information, while preserving our ability to recruit and retain world class scientists and staff.”

Three principles guided the crafting of the rules:

1. The public must be assured that research decisions made at NIH are based on scientific evidence and not by inappropriate influences.
2. Senior management and people who play an important role in research decisions must meet a higher standard of disclosure and divestiture than people who are not decision-makers.
3. To advance the science and stay on the cutting edge of research, NIH employees must be allowed interaction with professional associations, participation in public health activities, and genuine teaching opportunities.

Reference: DHHS National Institutes of Health]