Two NIH Doctors ‘Forbidden’ From Talking To Investigators About Clinical Trial Causing Concern About Quality Controls
Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak, who ordered the blocking of the two doctors, said, “The agency has the responsibility to choose people to respond on behalf of the NIH. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech.”
The Wall Street Journal:
NIH Blocks Two Doctors From Speaking Out To Investigators
The National Institutes of Health, the U.S. government’s premier health research agency, is refusing to allow two of its doctors to respond to government investigators looking into the quality of a continuing clinical trial of new blood-infection treatments on thousands of patients, according to NIH documents and multiple interviews. The resulting tensions within the NIH have pitted the office of the agency’s director, Francis Collins, against an internal NIH committee of 24 scientists, who are raising questions over the freedom researchers are afforded to critique the work of colleagues. (Burton, 4/28)
