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Battey |
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NIH PHOTO
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Schwartz |
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DUKE MEDICAL CENTER PHOTO
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Supplemental ethics rules that were put in place at NIH just two months ago should be reevaluated and changed, said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week.
The hot-button issue to arise from the new rules is the strict limit on NIH employees' stock holdings in drug and biotech companies. Under the rules, senior employees and their families cannot hold such stock, and all other employees and their families face a $15,000 cap on these holdings. The rule has been cited as the reason behind one institute director's plans to retire this year and for the delay in hiring a new director for another NIH institute.
National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders Director James F. Battey announced his plans to retire because he manages a family trust. If he stayed at NIH, he would be forced to divest some of the stock and possibly face some tax burdens. Battey, who also chaired the NIH Stem Cell Task Force, tells C&EN that he decided to leave by September because he will not be able to comply with the divestiture requirement.
David Schwartz, director of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care at Duke University Medical Center, has postponed his plans to become director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. In a letter to Zerhouni, Schwartz expressed concerns about some of the components of the new ethics rules. NIH would not release details of the letter, nor would it confirm which components of the rules are objectionable to Schwartz.
"We expect to be able to address all of the concerns he raised," says NIH Deputy Director Raynard S. Kington. He says he is optimistic that the agency can move toward resolving Schwartz's concerns and that the delay in his joining the agency would be brief.
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