The US National Institutes of Health is to allow two clinicians to speak with investigators looking into concerns that have been raised about a clinical trial of sepsis treatments, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal reported last week that Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director of NIH, barred two NIH clinicians, Charles Natanson and Peter Eichacker, who had criticized the study, from speaking with government investigators. At hand are concerns that the Crystalloid Liberal or Vasopressors Early Resuscitation in Sepsis, or CLOVER, study, which is funded by NIH, is not satisfactorily comparing the new treatments to the standard one. Tabak argued that the agency can choose who it wants to represent it, the Journal added.
But now, the Journal says the agency will allow Natanson and Eichacker to speak with investigators.
"We're pleased they reversed course," Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, which published a report criticizing the study, tells the Journal. "It's something the NIH should have done long ago."