Investigators: NIH Worker Allegedly Profited From Tissue Samples

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) June 15, 2006 -- A senior researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health may have profited by at least $285,000 from the transfer of human tissue samples in what appears to be a violation of agency ethics rules, House investigators told the Associated Press.

The investigators said the transfer of the samples to the drug giant Pfizer would not have been approved had agency permission been sought by Dr. Trey Sunderland, an Alzheimer's disease expert at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The arrangement raises questions about lax oversight at the agency, the investigators told the wire service.

Sunderland, chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch at the NIMH, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination Wednesday by refusing to testify at congressional hearings on the allegations.

He's been under congressional scrutiny before, the AP said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has investigated allegations that Sunderland received $517,000 since 1999 in consulting fees or expense reimbursements from Pfizer without any record of agency approval for those payments, the wire service reported.

The latest probe centers on investigators' belief that there were "reasonable grounds" that $285,000 of the $517,000 Sunderland received from Pfizer stemmed from giving the company access to spinal fluid and plasma samples in connection with Pfizer's work on an Alzheimer's drug, the AP said.

"Federal laws and policies do not permit NIH scientists to profit personally from their jobs and their patients by providing irreplaceable government assets," Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) told the wire service. Whitfield chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigation subcommittee.

An attorney for Sunderland, Robert Muse, said his client "didn't receive a dime for providing anything to Pfizer. He received fees for consulting as well as for lectures. These were known to NIH and they were permitted under NIH rules," Muse told the AP.

The transfer of tissue samples was done under a 1998 material transfer agreement between the NIMH and Pfizer, the AP reported. A company spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment, the wire service said.

Source: http://www.msn.com/

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