NIH Scientist Pleads Guilty

Pearson “Trey” Sunderland III, a senior government scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has pled guilty to violating conflict-of-interest regulations in the field of medical research. A resident of Chevy Chase, the 55-year old Sunderland headed the Griatric Psychiatry Branch of the NIH. He admitted to receiving an amount totaling $285,000 from Pfizer Inc, the pharmaceutical giant, and not disclosing this fact to the required authorities.

Sunderland has been the subject of a congressional probe into conflicts of interest in the field of medical research. He apparently consulted for Pfizer, while holding a position of a senior government scientist and researcher, a blatant breach of the conflict-of-interest rules. He worked as a consultant with Pfizer on two projects that involved his department collaborating with Pfizer. The area of research involved identifying chemical warnings of Alzheimer’s disease. The more alarming fact was that he hid the fact of receiving a consultation fees for his work from his supervisors.

In court, Sunderland admitted to receiving $25,000 a year as a retainer for five years, after discussions with Pfizer in 1998. Besides he received another $35,000 to attend meetings at Pfizer locations. He made the same arrangements a second time later in the same year. He did not inform his seniors about his arrangements, and also did not disclose the fact of the income in his reports.

While it is rare for a researcher to be tried in a criminal court for violating conflict-of-interest laws, Sunderland’s breach was deemed all the more alarming in light of his consulting fees arrangements, which first came under the scanner in 2004. US Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein was very clear that this was meant as a message to other people in the field of medical research. According to Rosenstein, Dr. Sunderland was in breach of the most basic principles followed in medical research: that a researcher would not accept payment from a private firm without informing and getting permission from the concerned authorities.

However, a judicial is one thing; a congressional probe is another. Congressmen have been up in arms about the sentence Sunderland received. He was asked, as part of a plea agreement, to forfeit the entire amount of $300,000 (the $285,000 and expenses that he got reimbursed for). In return he would be placed for probation for two years, when sentencing came about in December. He, however, still retains his federal job(he is a member of the Public Health Services Commissioned Corps), something that Congressmen have been questioning.

After Sunderland’s case, NIH has gone o the warpath, apparently, initiating administrative actions against 34 other scientists, besides referring 10 others to the Inspector General’s office for possible prosecution. It has also barred its employees from owning stock in or working for private companies, a rule that it passed in 2005.