The government agency yesterday canceled a planned Feb. 20 meeting to draft guidelines for treating pregnant women and babies with herpes.

Why? Several 44 prominent scientists and physicians and 15 consumer advocacy groups sent a letter protesting a conflict of interest among four of five experts who were scheduled to set the agenda. The researchers have research or consulting ties to drugmakers that sell herpes treatments, such as GlaxoSmithKline’s Valtrex.

An NIH spokeswoman wrote an e-mail to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) saying the meeting was canceled “out of concern that misperceptions about this meeting could not be resolved prior to the scheduled meeting date.”

Yet the same newspaper wrote a front-page story about the conflicts involving those four researchers last month. And the NIH did nothing - until this letter is sent. What took so long? The belated reaction suggests the NIAID officials have a tin ear to an issue that has increasingly upset the public.

Le’ts see if the NIH reschedules that meeting. It will be interesting to see if the agency finds experts without industry connections. After all, wouldn’t such transparency be in everyone’s interest?
[tags]GlaxoSmithKline, herpes, NIH[/tags]