http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j4Qh3gHH2Ga3wldWOHqSkutif1
mgD9CM06EG0
Report finds poor ethics policing at CDC
By MIKE STOBBE (AP) - 18 hours ago
ATLANTA - The government's top public health agency frequently failed to
police its outside experts for conflicts of interest, according to a new
government report released Friday.
The report looked at how well the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
looked for and dealt with conflicts among about 250 scientific experts who
served on 17 advisory panels in 2007.
Panel members are supposed to disclose whether they have been paid by - or
own stock in - drug companies or other entities that might have an interest
in the panel's decisions. The panels provide advice to the CDC on topics
such as how many people should get vaccinated and guidelines for cancer
screenings.
Almost none of the 250 advisers that year properly or completely filled out
forms in which they were required to state potential conflicts of interest,
according to the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services'
Office of the Inspector General.
The report concluded that the CDC failed to follow-up with some of the
experts who disclosed potential conflicts: 85 because of jobs or grants, 28
with stock ownership and 13 who received consulting fees.
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, who took over the agency in June, filed a
response that said the agency has improved its monitoring for conflicts of
interest. CDC also is taking other steps to simplify reporting of conflicts
and to develop new ways of finding out about experts' grants, he wrote.
Conflicts of interest are not unusual. Many science experts have links to
companies that sell medical products, or work for universities that seek
government grants. In some cases, experts avoid conflicts by not voting on
certain issues, or by selling off their stock. The CDC can also work out an
agreement with an expert - called a waiver - spelling out when they can cast
votes.
But even in those cases, the rules were sometimes disregarded. Seven people
- all of them on the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health - voted
on matters barred on their waivers, the report found.
CDC officials disputed that finding. It may have appeared from meeting
minutes that the experts voted inappropriately, but a review found nothing
inappropriate actually occurred, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.
The Office of the Inspector General has been examining conflicts of interest
at several federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of
Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
One member of Congress, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the findings were
concerning.
"The work of the CDC is too important to be tainted in any way," DeLauro
said in a statement. She sits on the appropriations subcommittee that has
sway over the budgets of the CDC and other health agencies.
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