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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are toughening their financial conflict-of-interest policies after publishing reports that some critics have said are tainted by undisclosed corporate influences.
The 154-year-old scientific academy, chartered by Congress during the Lincoln administration, has long enjoyed a reputation as a top-quality producer of in-depth, impartial academic analyses on a range of national policy questions.
But that reputation has been challenged by complaints about two reports — one on medical pain relief and another on genetically modified organisms — whose authors’ ties to industry were not made clear.
In response, the leadership of the private, nonprofit National Academies has agreed to a review of conflict-of-interest policies that it last updated in 2003. As part of that process, the academies already have decided to start noting potential financial conflicts involving study-panel members as part of their published reports.
"The idea that we need to do this has just gained more and more traction" in the last couple of years, said James F. Hinchman, deputy executive officer of the National Research Council, the research arm of the...