Elias Zerhouni, director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced new guidelines on ethics for staff members last week, addressing concerns initially made public in December 2003 by the Los Angeles Times about staff members who had lucrative consulting arrangements with drug and biotechnology companies (BMJ 2004;329: 10).

The new rules are tougher than some NIH staff members had wanted but more lenient than some critics had demanded. Dr Zerhouni said the new rules are “the most restrictive …