Dubious drugs and devices due to double dipping

If you work for the government, your duty is to the public and as such, you must avoid conflicts of interest that might interfere with that duty. The rules are strict. I know because I was a federal employee at one time.

It seems some feds are breaking the rules. A scientist from the NIH has entered a guilty plea to criminal charges made because he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Pfizer. It seems more convictions might be on the way:

Another senior researcher, Thomas J. Walsh, head of the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the National Cancer Institute, may be of increased interest to federal prosecutors now that Sunderland's case has been concluded, a government source said. Walsh engaged in "serious misconduct" by accepting more than $100,000 in consulting fees from drug and biotech companies, according to an internal NIH document obtained by the Los Angeles Times. He accepted fees from 25 companies and has led government-sponsored research involving some of those companies' drugs, according to the document.

Vicki E. LeDuc, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore, told The Scientist she could neither confirm nor deny that prosecutors planned to pursue criminal action against the researcher. Walsh did not respond to a request for comment, but has previously denied wrongdoing. "We have not heard anything from prosecutors," his attorney, H. Bradford Glassman, told The Scientist on Friday.

NIH scientists are balking at the rules, but in a climate where ethical conduct is on the minds of many - perhaps from post-Hwang paranoia - their whining seems especially arrogant. Government scientists make a fair wage, have good benefits and secure jobs. If they don't like what they get in exchange for their work, they can always go to the private sector. (Hooray for free will) If my tax dollars pay their salaries, I expect them to do the best and most ethical science possible. They are duty bound to do so.

For more details, see The Scientist.

Some of my previous posts on scientific misconduct:

Ethics rules send NIH scientists packing

Former FDA chief charged with conflict

Journal editor quits over conflict of interest

(how about that alliteration in the title, eh?)