Attempts to redefine conflicts of interest

ABSTRACT

The traditional legal concept of conflict of interest is a practical tool to regulate conduct. In recent years several medical authors have defined conflicts of interest in ways that stray from its original legal meaning. The new definitions cause conceptual confusion and will result in policies that cannot be implemented effectively. We should not follow recent attempts to redefine conflicts of interest because doing so deviates from the legal concept and will lead to deregulation of financial conflicts and overregulation of so-called intellectual conflicts.

KEYWORDS:

• Commercialization of research
• conflicts of interest
• law

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Peter Jacobson and Judith Richter Jerome Kassirer, Sheldom Krimsky, and John Lantos for comments on the manuscript, and to Samantha Cannon and Chandra Ulinfun for proofing and helping with citations.

Notes

¹ The regulations promulgated under the statute specify various financial interests that disqualify federal employees from participating in a matter. The OGE also imputes to the individual the financial interests of family members and affiliates. It, therefore, includes as prohibited financial interests “the financial interests of: The employee’s spouse or minor child; a general partner of a partnership in which the employee is a limited or general partner; an organization in which the employee serves as an officer, director, trustee, general partner, or employee; or a person with whom the employee is negotiating for or has an arrangement concerning prospective employment (OGE 1993, 2017).”