Sen. Grassley Tufts prof/device firm director over conflict
September 26th, 2008 joshua
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, an outspoken member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote a stern letter to the National Institutes of Health over his worries about a Tufts University professor’s ties to the medical device industry.
Marvin Konstam is a professor at Tufts University and is also director at Orquis, a medical device maker. He is also an outside contractor at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Grassley wrote NIH about his concerns that Konstam is still on staff at Tufts while holding these other two positions professionally.
Last week, Orquis issued a ringing endorsement of one of its minimally-invasive product for heart failure patients. Konstam was quoted in the press release, but not as affiliated with Orquis, but as a Tufts University professor.
“Anyone would be confused about who is Dr. Konstam’s employer,” Grassley wrote to NIH. “Tufts? The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute? Orquis?”
The Senate Finance Committee has added this instance into a growing number of conflict of interest complaints involving medical device makers and paid professional consultants.
In some cases the conflict is not as salient as it appears the case of Konstam.
NIH officials told The Boston Globe this week that it will work with Grassley to investigate these charges.
Tufts defended its employee and said it recently extended him an offer to continue his term with the school.
