Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17683

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Publication type: Electronic Source

Silverman E
Grassley Wants Conflict Data From CDC Committees
Pharmalot 2010 Apr 26
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/04/grassley-wants-conflict-data-from-cdc-committees/

Full text:

Last December, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released a report showing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was having a hard time gathering sufficient financial disclosure info from so-called Special Government Employees, or SGEs, who serve on CDC advisory committees. The HHS OIG reviewed info provided to 17 committees that met in 2007 and also found that many SGEs served on committees, even though potential conflicts weren’t disclosed.
And so Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who has spent the last few years probing conflicts of interest among government agencies, academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry, has written a letter to the CDC noting that 41 percent of SGEs didn’t receive ethics training in 2007 and seeking a status report on steps the CDC has taken to follow the recommendations made by the HHS OIG in its reports (here’s the letter).
“By not completing disclosure forms and/or not receiving ethics training, CDC’s Federal Advisory committees’ integrity and the influential guidance that comes from these committees are jeopardized,” Grassley writes to CDC director Tom Frieden. He also asks for every disclosure form filed by SGEs since January 2008, suggesting he will be looking to make an example of someone as soon as possible.