NIH Bans Outside Collaborations

From the Washington Post (free registration required):

"All scientists at the National Institutes of Health will be banned from any new outside collaborations with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies for at least one year -- and all existing collaborations will have to be discontinued -- under a surprise shift in policy released...by agency officials.

The blanket moratorium represents a much more radical policy change than NIH officials recently said they would invoke, and one that could shake already flagging morale at the beleaguered agency. But its need became apparent after the agency's own conflict-of-interest investigation turned up more problems than had been anticipated, said Raynard S. Kington, NIH's deputy director and ethics chief. "