Harold Varmus, director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has called for an internal inquiry into the financial relationship between one of NIH's leading diabetes researchers and the manufacturer of a diabetes drug that has been linked to nearly three dozen deaths since it came onto the US market in early 1997. The inquiry coincides with a series of detailed questions sent to Varmus from Congressman Henry Waxman (D–Ca), which elicited a four–page response from Varmus expressing NIH's deep concern "about public reaction to a possible conflict of interest."
Varmus has asked the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services to determine whether Richard Eastman, a researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, violated any laws. Eastman accepted consulting fees from the New Jersey based pharmaceutical company, Warner–Lambert, which manufactures the diabetes drug rezulin (Nature Med. 4, 981; 1998), and also served as a member of the steering committee for a $150 million government–sponsored, nationwide study—The Diabetes Prevention Program—that included the drug. In a written statement, Varmus says it is critical "that NIH officials who oversee [such] studies adhere to the highest scientific and ethical standards."
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