Human Tissue for Sale by U.S. Scientist?

Email

Print

Share

June 13, 2006 12:20 PM

A research scientist at the National Institutes for Health illegally sold human tissue samples to the Pfizer drug company for $285,000, according to a Congressional investigation made public today.

The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, in a report released today, said that Dr. Trey Sunderland, chief of the NIH's Geriatric Psychiatric Branch, gave Pfizer access to over 3,000 tubes of NIH property and linked clinical data, including spinal fluid and plasma samples. "Records and interviews provide reasonable grounds to believe that Dr. Sunderland personally received $285,000 in compensation from Pfizer," the report concludes.

The investigation was prompted when a former NIH researcher raised concerns over missing samples that had been collected for a clinical research trial on Alzheimer's Disease.  A NIH document showed that Dr. Sunderland's branch had sent spinal fluid samples to Pfizer from 538 research subjects.  Human tissue samples are an increasingly important tool in translating biomedical discoveries into improved medical care.

The subcommittee's report also revealed serious shortcomings in the way the NIH keeps track of human tissue samples. The report found the NIH had "no explicit policy for the handling and accounting of human tissue samples," and there was "no formal inventory control or tracking system at NIH."  The subcommittee is holding hearings today and tomorrow on the issue.

Through his lawyer, Dr. Sunderland flatly denied receiving any payment for the tissue samples from Pfizer.

His lawyer, Bob Muse, says Dr. Sunderland had approval from NIH superiors to send the human tissue samples to Pfizer.

According to the Congressional report, the NIH's Office of Management Assessment has "found that Dr. Sunderland's misconduct violated ethics rules as well as federal law and regulation."

Read the Staff Report: "Human Tissue Samples: NIH Research Policies & Practices"