Guest guest Posted October 5, 2004 Report Share Posted October 5, 2004 " HSI - Jenny Thompson " <HSIResearch Smoke and Mirrors Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:49:43 -0400 Smoke and Mirrors Health Sciences Institute e-Alert October 05, 2004 ************************************************************** Dear Reader, Turn on the smoke and bring in the mirrors... It must have made for a bummer of a Friday happy hour. On Friday, September 24th, an e-mail was sent out to all National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees announcing a proposed moratorium that would ban as many as 5,000 NIH scientists from accepting any consulting money from drug companies for at least a year. Impressive! It seems like NIH administrators are getting tough on the unseemly cash-cow cahoots between researchers and the companies that develop drugs that are studied by those researchers. But let's take a peek between the lines for a reality check. --------------------------- Moving at the speed of bureaucracy --------------------------- In the e-Alert " Back to the Island " (12/29/03), I told you about a five-year investigation into the inner workings of the NIH by David Willman, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Willman's painstaking reporting revealed that more than $2.5 million of drug company consulting fees had been paid to top NIH officials and scientists who oversee the clinical trials of drugs. Uh oh. Not great news if you're an NIH honcho. In his investigation, Mr. Willman found a 1998 legal opinion that provides a loophole by which more than 90 percent of NIH officials are allowed to keep their consulting income confidential. A pretty sweet deal... until Congress got wind of it. This past June, NIH director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., told a Congressional committee that he had finally seen the light! His conclusion: The NIH ethics rules and procedures needed " drastic changes. " So here's the timeline: * December 2003: The LA Times drops the bomb and reveals all * June 2004: Dr. Zerhouni confirms that the situation needs drastic changes * September 2004: NIH proposes a moratorium on drug company consulting fees Things aren't moving along too swiftly, are they? Well, this is, after all, a huge bureaucracy. It's easier for an ocean liner to make a u-turn than it is for a " national institute " to revise a key policy. Especially a beloved policy that's responsible for millions of dollars in perks. --------------------------- That was then... --------------------------- But things are moving along now, right? Well... sort of. Notice that the moratorium is a " proposed " moratorium. Which means that before it can go into effect, it requires the approval of Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, AND the approval of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). So now we've got THREE different bureaucracies involved. That ought to speed things up! But here's the best part: Information about the proposed moratorium went out to NIH employees and the press on 9/24. And when was the proposal delivered to Secretary Thompson and the OGE? According to The Scientist magazine, as of 9/24, " NIH had not submitted the proposal, officials said, and no date for doing so had been established. " These guys are something, aren't they? In his 9/24 e-mail, Dr. Zerhouni stated, " We have identified vulnerabilities in our system that give us pause. " The key word here: " pause. " Those vulnerabilities didn't make them stop. Nope. They're pausing. --------------------------- Eye of the beholder --------------------------- Any amusement we may get from this bureaucracy's double-speak and snail-like pace disappears quickly when you consider the important work of the NIH. Last year, the NIH annual budget was nearly $28 billion. And many millions of that are devoted to vital research that includes complementary and alternative medicine. Given that, I'm not sure which makes me angrier: the fact that NIH officials and scientists are so comfortable in accepting huge " consulting " fees from drug companies, or the fact that this proposed moratorium seems to be giving drug companies plenty of notice that they need to make sure consulting fees are spread liberally before any sort of ban actually takes effect. According to The Scientist, Dr. Zerhouni told Congress last June that in retrospect, " there was not a sufficient safeguard against the perception of conflict of interest. " Once again, when we read carefully, we can see that the concern was not over a conflict of interest, but the PERCEPTION of a conflict of interest. It's almost as if Dr. Zerhouni were trying to tell us something. ************************************************************** ....and another thing If you've got a passion for kiwifruit, your heart may love you for it. Kiwifruit is packed with nutrients, including plenty of vitamins C and E and polyphenols; the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory plant compounds that have been shown to provide cardiovascular benefits. So researchers at the University of Oslo designed a test to evaluate the effect of kiwifruit on heart health. During a 28-day trial, cholesterol, platelet activity and triglyceride levels were measured in healthy volunteers who ate two or three kiwifruits each day. Subjects who ate kiwifruit didn't have any changes in cholesterol levels, but platelet aggregation was reduced by nearly 20 percent, and triglyceride levels were lowered by 15 percent, compared to a group that didn't eat kiwifruits. And an added bonus: A UK research institute recently reported that a daily intake of kiwifruit may provide protection from cancer- causing DNA damage, while also stimulating DNA repair. Most of us who live outside of New Zealand probably don't eat 15 to 20 kiwifruits each week. But it seems that adding this nutrient- dense item to a diet that already includes plenty of fruits and vegetables may provide a welcome boost to heart health benefits. To Your Good Health, Jenny Thompson Health Sciences Institute ************************************************************** Sources: " Zerhouni Proposes 1-Year Moratorium After Finding 'Vulnerabilities in System' " Ted Agres, The Scientist, 9/27/04, biomedcentral.com " NIH Proposes Moratorium on Collaborations " The Associated Press, 9/24/04, ap.org " NIH Needs 'Drastic Changes' " Ted Agres, The Scientist, 6/23/04, biomedical.com " Stealth Merger: Drug Companies and Government Medical Research " David Willman, The Los Angeles Times, 12/7/03, latimes.com " Effects of Kiwi Fruit Consumption on Platelet Aggregation and Plasma Lipids in Healthy Human Volunteers " Platelets, Vol. 15, No. 5, August 2004, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov " Kiwis Make for Healthier Arteries " NutraIngredients.com, 9/8/04, nutraingredients.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.