WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Anthony Fauci is among the NIH leadership who is receiving royalties from third parties, but whether those payments are a conflict of interest will require litigation, according to an taxpayer watchdog.
Open the Books uncovered the information after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Jan. 28, 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“We don't know what entities are cutting the royalty checks because they are blacked it out,” said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO, and founder of the Open the Books. “They erased it. They redacted it. So, we don't know the amount of the payment to the individual scientists, which includes leadership at NIH, and we don't know the patent number or the license number of the co-invention.”
As a result, Open the Books has been unable to follow the money at NIH.
“There is no way to hold the agency accountable for any conflicts of interest because of the highly redacted production,” Andrzejewski told Legal Newsline.
Open the Books and American Transparency filed the lawsuit alleging FOIA violations on Oct. 25, 2021.
“Over the next 30 days, we'll be back in court arguing that we need an unredacted file, that NIH needs to come clean and follow federal Freedom of Information Act transparency law,” he said. “They are claiming exemptions under FOIA, and we're saying that those exemptions don't apply. So, this has to be litigated.”
Open the Books is asking the court to order the NIH to produce the record and enjoin NIH from continuing to withhold the FOIA request results.
Overall, some $350 million in royalties were paid by third parties between 2010 and 2020 to co-inventors who work at the NIH, according to media reports.
“It has happened in the past where patients were part of trials on highly risky treatments, and they didn't know that the NIH scientist had a financial interest in the product,” Andrzejewski added. “Every single one of the royalty payments could be a conflict of interest without transparency. There is no way to know the scope until they produce the proper information so we can follow the money and we can fact check the bureaucrats' promises.”