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NIH gets earful on new ethics rules

The National Institutes of Health curtails its scientists' moonlighting.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 29, 2006

Nearly 40 percent of the scientists conducting hands-on research at the National Institutes of Health say they are looking for other jobs or are considering doing so to escape new ethics rules that have curtailed their opportunity to earn outside income.

Most scientists say the ethics crackdown is too severe, and nearly three-quarters of them believe it will hinder the government's ability to attract and keep medical researchers, according to a survey commissioned by the government's premier medical research agency.

The tightened rules were put in place last year after the NIH found dozens of scientists had run afoul of existing restrictions on private consulting deals that had enriched them with money from drug and biotechnology companies.

Outside income from such companies is now banned. The NIH also is placing greater restrictions and disclosure requirements on employees' financial holdings.

Dr. Raynard Kington, the agency's principal deputy director, said Friday that the survey results are muddy because they combine those actively seeking to leave and those thinking about it.

About 8,000 NIH employees, or about half the work force, responded to the Internet-based survey. Of those respondents, 3,336 were scientists, including 512 tenure and tenure-track researchers.

Employee job satisfaction was high overall, the survey found. But 39 percent of the scientists researching disease and cures - known as tenure and tenure-track scientists - said they actively were seeking new work or considering leaving the NIH because of the rules.

Most NIH scientists said the old rules could have been enforced better rather than tightened.

Kington highlighted a finding that nearly nine in 10 scientists reported they still intend to work at the NIH a year from now. He said the scientists' job satisfaction rate of 81 percent reflects one of the government's most positive work forces.

Officials also emphasized employees' belief that the rules will boost the agency's credibility with the public. Seventy-three percent of employees agreed with that, the survey found.

But Edward Maibach, a former NIH administrator who left over the ethics rules, said the changes are "a dramatic backlash," to earlier policies encouraging outside work by scientists to speed practical application of scientific advances.

[Last modified October 29, 2006, 00:55:31]