A faculty member of a midwestern university has a
postdoctoral fellow who had been working for three years on one aspect of a new
drug that has just been approved by the FDA. The drug company pays the mentor
$5,000 per year in consulting fees. This year, the company is sponsoring a
threeday conference in San Francisco, all expenses paid. The conference brings
together approximately 15 scientists from around the country who are leaders in
research on this drug. Their job is to speak to 300 invited guests, physicians
who are potential prescribers of the drug. All the physicians’ expenses are
paid. The speakers will each receive a $3,000 honorarium. The faculty member
accepts the invitation, and the postdoctoral fellow hears about it by accident.
He informs his mentor that he has new data indicating that the drug may have
serious side effects. The mentor points out that the work is not yet published
and that she will deal only with the published data for now. • Under the terms
of the COI policies described above, is this a COI? • If the answer is yes,
what is the COI? What type is it? • Are there COIs in this case that are not
covered by the policies? • Is this a case of misconduct? • Should the mentor
have done anything differently up to the point that the postdoctoral fellow
told her about the new data? What should the mentor and postdoctoral fellow do
now?
Leave a Reply