The National Institutes of Health has failed to adequately investigate financial conflicts of interest of researchers, which can potentially lead to skewed and unreliable results, according to a recent report by Daniel Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The NIH handed out over $20 billion last year to researchers at over 3,000 universities. Penn received $480,271,454 for scientific research, according to Josie Rook of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
However, the Inspector General's study found that the "NIH could not provide an accurate count of the financial conflict-of-interest reports" and "is not aware of the types of financial conflicts of interest that exist."
The NIH awards research grants through 24 of its institutes that are responsible for the oversight of those grants. Each grantee institution, like Penn, that receives money must have its own policy for financial conflicts of interest and is responsible for reporting conflicts to the Public Health Service before spending the funds.
Penn manages conflict-of-interest cases on an individual basis through a committee consisting of 10 faculty members appointed by the Vice Provost for Research. The Conflict of Interest Standing Committee is charged with determining "whether a potential conflict of interest exists, and how it should be managed," according to Penn's conflict-of-interest guide.
Penn appears to be well within federal guidelines when it comes to eliminating conflicts of interest, said director of Penn's Center for Bioethics Arthur Caplan.
However, other institutions may not be up to par. Most of the NIH's records on conflicts-of-interest lack details, according to the Inspector General's report.
The Inspector General made a number of recommendations to the NIH. Norka Ruiz Bravo, the NIH's deputy director for extramural research, said the institutes have "already done a number of things" to improve the system.
The NIH is currently working on two Web sites, one for internal organization of conflict-of-interest reports and another that will allow institutions to submit records electronically.
Although the NIH agrees there are improvements to be made, it did not agree with the Inspector General's recommendation to "require grantee institutions to provide details" about each case and how it is handled. The NIH says that doing so would effectively transfer responsibility of management of financial conflicts of interest to the federal government.
The NIH, with the mission of scientific research and innovation, does not have the tools to regulate financial conflicts of interest, said Caplan.
"I expect to see Congress stepping in here," he said.
