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A substantial proportion of early-career investigators receiving financial aid from the National Institutes of Health to pay off school debt are violating the program’s rules on industry funding, an investigation by Science has revealed. Of nearly 200 clinical scientists funded by the agency’s Loan Repayment Program (LRP) in the last five years, Science found that more than one-third broke the agency’s rules when they accepted money for consulting or industry work, although the investigation also finds that many recipients may have been unaware that they were doing anything wrong.
“The intent of the LRP should be to assist people who pursue something that is very challenging in academic medicine—building a career that is truly independent of conflicted bodies,” Oregon Health & Science University’s Vinay Prasad, who studies industry influence on medical research, tells Science. He adds that, “for this pattern [of violations] to emerge, many people ...
