According to the Washington Post, NIH is proposing a one-year moratorium on outside collaboration with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies for all scientists. The ban comes in the wake of an internal investigation (prompted by an LA Times article last fall) that has found serious cases of conflict of interest within the agency, including one scientist receiving $600 per hour to be an expert witness and another receiving $517,000 over five years by Pfizer without reporting any of it to NIH. NIH is considering a permanent ban on any outside consulting by high-ranking scientists.