The New York Times reports that José Baselga, the chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, didn't always disclose payments he received from drug or healthcare companies to research journals.
As the Times, in conjunction with ProPublica, reports, Baselga has numerous ties to drug and other healthcare companies. He has served on the boards of about six companies since 2013, in addition to his MSKCC role and, in particular, he serves or has served on the board of directors or on the scientific or clinical advisory boards of Bristol-Myers Squib, Grail, Aura Biosciences, Juno Therapeutics, and more, according to the Times.
While the Times says that MSKCC knew of Baselga's industry ties, it adds that those ties were often not disclosed on papers authored by Baselga; it calculates that he failed to disclose those relationships about 60 percent of the time. According to the Times, that includes not disclosing his ties to Roche — as a paid consultant — on a 2015 New England Journal of Medicine article on the company's Zelboraf.
Baselga tells the Times that not disclosing his ties was unintentional and that he planned to correct his conflict-of-interest statements for 17 articles. The American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the New England Journal of Medicine also tell the Times they will be looking into the matter.
In a subsequent article, the Times reports that MSKCC has implored its staff to better report industry ties.