Only senior employees will be required to comply with some strict rules.

After seven tense months, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) on 25 August rolled back its controversial 'interim final rule,' designed to prohibit conflicts of interest among its researchers.

Director Elias Zerhouni announced that the total ban on NIH researchers consulting with pharmaceutical and related industries would remain in force. However, only the institute's 200 or so senior employees will be required to divest stocks from those companies in excess of $15,000, whereas all employees would still be scrutinized for conflicts.

But in some cases, it is “still unclear” what the new rules at the NIH would allow, says Derek LeRoith who in September left the NIH for New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Nat. Med. 11, 914–915; 2005). LeRoith says he's happy with his decision to leave the agency after 26 years there because it allows him to continue as president of the International Society for IGF Research, to lecture “and get reimbursed for my efforts.”

Since newspaper reports of NIH scientists violating the agency's conflict of interest guidelines first appeared in December 2003, NIH policies have been the focus of intense debate. Zerhouni said the agency would continue to insist on full disclosure and consider employees' holdings on an individual basis. Some employees still must file public forms, and can only accept awards with prior approval from an ethics officer.