Review of the National Institutes of Health's Controls Over Advisory Committees' Potential Conflicts-of-Interest

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This final report addresses weaknesses in control procedures designed to detect and prevent actual and perceived conflicts-of-interest involving the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) 235 advisory committees. Advisory committees consist of outside experts and professional peers who provide advice about biomedical research direction and how research monies should be spent. We found that NIH's procedures were not sufficient to detect conflicts-of-interest in its advisory committees that provide advice and direction to the directors of NIH Institutes, Centers and Divisions. We recommend that NIH implement corrective actions to improve the internal controls over conflicts-of-interest.

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