UCLA Surgeon Accused of Hiding Medical Company's Payments

Washington — The campaign by Sen. Charles E. Grassley to highlight conflicts of interest in medical research has apparently claimed another scalp, this time at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Senator Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, wrote last week to the university’s chancellor, Gene D. Block, to say that Jeffrey C. Wang, chief of UCLA’s Orthopedic Spine Service, had failed to tell UCLA about $459,500 he was paid by medical-supply companies from 2004 to 2007.

The companies included Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, and FzioMed, and the payments covered royalties, consulting fees, and speaking fees, Mr. Grassley said. Such payments aren’t illegal, though the senator said the money wasn’t disclosed to UCLA, as required, until he asked about it.

The National Institutes of Health, largely in response to such cases, frequently highlighted by Mr. Grassley, announced this month that it would consider imposing tougher regulations aimed at reducing financial conflicts of interest in scientific research. NIH officials also said, however, that they would not seek to overturn the fundamental understanding that universities, not the NIH, have the primary responsibility for monitoring their employees.

UCLA and Dr. Wang, a professor of orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery, had no comment on Mr. Grassley’s letter, The Wall Street Journal reported. A UCLA spokesman, Dale Triber Tate, told The Chronicle that the university was “in the process of pulling together the material to respond to Senator Grassley’s letter by mid-June.” —Paul Basken