Consumer Group Seeks Probe of NIH
The Wall Street Journal
By Thomas M. Burton
The nonprofit consumer-advocacy group, Public Citizen, is calling on a federal inspector general to investigate “gross misconduct” by senior NIH officials who blocked the research agency’s own scientists from sharing their concerns about a medical study with investigators. Public Citizen condemned “efforts by the NIH leadership to muzzle its own scientific experts and thereby effectively interfere” with the inquiry. The issue has already generated tensions between the agency’s leadership and a committee of 24 senior NIH scientists, who say NIH researchers should have freedom to speak about the handling of medical studies.