Opioid policies: scientists advising US government had commercial ties, BMJ investigation finds

An investigation by The BMJ has found that a scientific body advising the US Food and Drug Administration on opioid policies did not publicly disclose that one of its presidents had recent links to industry.1

As a result of The BMJ’s investigation into the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), a number of journal articles by Victor Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine, were updated to disclose his financial ties to several companies including Medtronic, which sells an implantable device to deliver pain medicine.

Dzau joined NASEM in 2014 and continued to own shares in Medtronic until 2018. He told The BMJ that he had resigned from all commercial relationships and divested his holdings before taking up the …