Top officials at the National Institutes of Health injected themselves into the investigation of a highly controversial NIH-sponsored study and compromised its independence, according to a public advocacy group. Public Citizen says a freedom of information request revealed email communication between top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Human Research Protections and NIH to draft a letter about the controversial SUPPORT study. Among the emails were several letters from NIH Director Francis Collins thanking HHS and OHRP officials for letting NIH give its input on a letter to the University of Alabama at Birmingham about OHRP's ethical conclusions about the controversial study.
