NIH Comes Up Short In Tracking Conflicts of Interest

A new report by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General's office indicates that the NIH is falling short when it comes to monitoring conflicts of interest by its researchers. NIH was unable to provide an accurate count of financial conflicts of interests between 2004 and 2006. Furthermore, since details of such conflicts do not need to be reported, the exact nature of the conflicts of interest are often unknown.