Conflicts of Interest in the News: 011412 Edition

The two big COI news stories of the week were:

–  Economists Adopt New Disclosure Rules for Authors of Published Research.  The reforms follow “heavy scrutiny of economists’ conflicts of interest before the financial crash of 2008.”  This is a good (and certainly overdue) step (and sadly underscores how it often takes a scandal for COI-related reforms to be implemented).  Of course, disclosure by itself does not necessarily mitigate COIs.

– Ties of FDA experts to pharma companies revealed. The “FDA asked outside experts in December to discuss the safety of birth control that contains the compound drospirenone, including Bayer’s Yaz and Yasmin. The panel decided by a four-vote margin that the benefit of pregnancy prevention from these pills outweighed their risk of dangerous blood clots. But according to court and public documents, three of the FDA’s 26 advisers had research or financial ties to Bayer. A fourth adviser had a connection to a manufacturer of generic copies of Yaz, Barr Laboratories, now part of Teva Pharmaceuticals. All four of these advisers voted that the drugs’ benefits outweighed risks, meaning the pills could stay on the market…” Beyond the impact on the decision at issue, one can imagine the harm that COIs of this sort have on public trust of the FDA.

Other news of the week concerns COIs and…

– Government contractors.  This is an analysis from the Corporate Compliance Insights website of an important decision from the General Accounting Office concerning government contractors hiring former government officials, underscoring, among to other things, the need to do meaningful conflicts checks in hiring.

– Journalists: “Next week, thousands of tech journalists will descend on Las Vegas to get a sneak peek at coming tech gadgets at the International Consumer Electronics Show.  Many will also probably come away with grab bags of goodies…The question, of course, is whether journalists can properly serve their readers when the industry is handing them bottles of top-shelf booze and pricey toys.”

– Supreme Court Justices.  A tricky issue,  indeed: who decides COI issues for the court of last resort?

– Regulators: “A former Securities and Exchange Commission official has agreed to pay a $50,000 fine for going through the revolving door and working for alleged Ponzi scheme mastermind Robert Allen Stanford after purportedly taking part in SEC decisions to not investigate Stanford, the Justice Department said Friday.” (Bad facts – but also an unusual case.)

And, thanks to Broc Romanek of the invaluable – particularly for securities and corporate lawyers – theCorporateCounsel.net for featuring our post on COIs in serving on other companies’ boards.  Apparently this was the occasion for much discussion there – and so we will return to the topic before not too long.

Coming up next week: more on COI risk assessment, moral hazard and a video coming attraction for a series on cognitive bias and “behavioral compliance and ethics.”