Grassley-Kohl amendment would shore up NIH conflicts rules

02/05/2009

An amendment put forward today by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) as part of the Senate’s economic recovery bill would better illuminate conflicts in federal biomedical grants by requiring the National Institutes of Health to enforce its conflict of interest policies and respond to violators in a timely manner.  The Grassley-Kohl amendment would address big discrepancies and omissions in grantees institutional self-reporting uncovered in the last year by Sen. Grassley. 

The amendment also would require the following information to be given to the NIH by grantees receiving NIH in excess of $250,000:
a.   The amount of the primary investigator’s significant financial interest, estimated to the nearest one thousand dollars
b.   A detailed report on how the grantee institution will manage the primary investigator’s conflict of interest.

“It’s become clear that the federal rules in place to manage conflicts of interest in research aren’t enforced as they ought to be, and there’s an opportunity to strengthen them here, as well,” Grassley said in a statement. 

“NIH grants are highly competitive” Kohl said in a statement. "The government has a right to know whether the scientists it funds have a financial stake in the outcome of their research.”

The two senators also introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act earlier this session. For more about that bill go here.