An Emory University psychiatrist under investigation by a Senate committee for allegedly failing to disclose more than a million dollars in pharmaceutical company pay has stepped down as principal investigator on a $9.3 million National Institutes of Health research grant.

The researcher, Charles Nemeroff, is the second scientist who has recently stepped down from an NIH grant amid Senate scrutiny of undisclosed conflicts of interest.

According to Ron Sauder, an Emory spokesperson interviewed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the NIH will withhold the remainder of funding on the five-year grant - which began in July 2006 - "pending resolution of outstanding issues relating to conflict of interest procedures."

Nemeroff resigned his chairmanship of Emory's psychiatry department on October 3 as the university launched its own investigation into his apparent failure to disclose industry ties.

The NIH is now requiring the university's Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) and all Emory researchers hoping to secure agency funding to submit and assure detailed records of who is participating on proposed projects and what financial conflicts they may have.

"As you may know, the University has been under scrutiny in connection with our business practices for the management of research financial conflict of interest," Emory's vice president for research administration David Wynes wrote in a memo to university researchers last week. "It is important to note that, in the future, OSP will non [sic] submit any NIH grant application until disclosures have been received for every Investigator participating in the study."

In the memo, Wynes explained that "as of October 8, 2008 the NIH has imposed special award conditions on all awards made to Emory University. The special award conditions will affect both the submission of proposals to the NIH as well as the receipt of funding."

(Thanks to the Pharmalot blog for posting a copy of the memo.)

Nemeroff was originally accused of failing to report payments from drug maker GlaxoSmithKline by Senate Finance Committee ranking Republican Charles Grassley, who has recently investigated similar apparent indiscretions among other NIH-funded researchers.