The NIH has issued its new rule regarding its employees and potential financial conflicts, and it's a lot stricter than most had thought it would be. Although prior rules were somewhat difficult to sort out, the new one leaves little room for fudging.
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the Director of the NIH, stated that a bright-line rule was needed. The new rule starts right off in its summary by telling readers what is not allowed. Any compensated or uncompensated work for a biotech, pharma, medical device or other similar company, a health care provider, research organization or any education institution that "recently" received an NIH grant or was an applicant for a grant is not allowed (includes speaking, writing, teaching or editing something for such companies).
Teaching at a college for a course in an established curriculum or writing an article for a peer-reviewed journal is allowed (among other things). Any prohibited activities must cease within 30 days, though employees can ask for up to another 60 days if needed.
Any NIH employees who would need to disclose (confidentially or publicly) their financial holdings are prohibited from having holdings in a biosciences company. Those who don't need to file such financial holding reports are capped at $15,000 in their holdings in those companies. All employees have 150 days to divest any necessary holding to comply with the law.
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