Washington

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will act immediately to address concerns that its ethics standards are not rigorous enough, its director, Elias Zerhouni, has told Congress. But life-sciences lobbyists are already worried that the ethics issue is hurting the agency's budget outlook for 2005.

Concerns about ethics at the NIH were raised last month in the Los Angeles Times (see Nature 426, 741; 200310.1038/426741a ). The newspaper alleged that some of the agency's employees have been inappropriately influenced by consulting arrangements that were deliberately shielded from public view.

Billy Tauzin (Republican, Louisiana), chair of the energy and commerce committee in the House of Representatives, which oversees the NIH, had given Zerhouni until 8 January to respond to the allegations.

In a letter sent in response to Tauzin, Zerhouni outlined a four-point action plan to address the concerns. He said that the NIH will review all external payments received by its employees since 1999. He also pledged to set up an ethics advisory committee inside the agency, as well as an outside panel of experts to advise the NIH on its ethics policies and practices. Finally, he pledged to review the policies that dictate when and how NIH employees disclose their consulting relationships to the public, and to “act to increase appropriate financial disclosure”.

“Our mission is too important to the public health of the Nation to have it undermined by any real or perceived conflicts of interest,” Zerhouni wrote.

Additionally, on 5 January, the NIH issued rules pertaining to conflicts of interest among scientists who serve on its scientific review panels. The rules largely articulate existing practice, observers of the agency say, and are not expected to make much difference to researchers who review NIH grant applications.

Officials at scientific societies praised Zerhouni's rapid response to the criticism. But they say that the issue has come at an awkward time for the agency, which faces an uphill fight for funding this year. President George Bush is expected to propose an increase of about 2% in the NIH's $27-billion budget when he sets out his 2005 budget early next month — much less than the agency has enjoyed in recent years.