University of Texas System Researcher's Ties to Drug Firms Questioned

The inspector general at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could launch an inquiry into the scientist, UT child pharmacology researcher Karen Wagner. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to the University of Texas System in September raising concerns that Karen Wagner had not properly disclosed her financial connections with drug companies.
Read article in the Dallas Morning News (USA)

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley questions doctors' ties to drug companies

An influential U.S. senator is investigating the drug company connections of two renowned psychiatrists linked to the University of Texas System. In a letter to the UT chancellor's office, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said the two researchers, both of whom have received federal grants, have failed to report tens of thousands of dollars in income they received from drug companies. The university is required to keep records of such income on file. Dr. Augustus John Rush, a former researcher at UT-Southwestern in Dallas, and Dr. Karen Wagner, who works at the University of Texas Medical Branch, are the latest doctors to fall under federal scrutiny in a brewing national debate over the influence big pharmaceutical companies can wield over medical research.
Read article at dallasnews.com