Related Resources (PDF format):
NIH OBA Complaint, 3 May 2004
Supporting Documents (Exhibits 1 - 9)

The Sunshine Project
News Release
4 May 2004

Federal Complaint Seeks Termination of Government
Funding for Nine Biotechnology Research Institutions

(Austin Ð 3 May 2004) - Today, the Sunshine Project filed a federal complaint against nine institutions, some of them major biotechnology research centers, for failure to comply with public access provisions of federal biotechnology research rules. The complaint, lodged with the National Institutes of Health Office of Biotechnology Activities (NIH OBA) seeks immediate suspension of federal funding to the institutions and a fifteen day deadline for compliance. If the institutions do not comply within that timeframe, the Sunshine Project has requested that NIH declare them ineligible for federal biotechnology research funding.

The institutions are: Iowa State University (Ames, IA), Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Washington University (St. Louis, MO), University of Pittsburg (Pittsburgh, PA), Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR), Southern Illinois University Medical School (Springfield, IL), Serono Reproductive Biology Institute (Rockland, MA), and Vical, Inc. (San Diego, CA).

Transparency in biotechnological research is particularly important now because, in 2001, the United States rejected the strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) through a protocol including declarations and inspections. Since it rejected legally-binding international efforts for stronger biological weapons controls, the US has allocated $15 billion or more for biodefense research, including classified research programs and types of studies that generate knowledge and capabilities for offensive biological warfare. The huge upswing in research on biological weapons agents has triggered a deterioration in public disclosure.

The complaint demonstrates that each of the nine research institutions has refused to provide copies of the minutes of meetings of its Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). IBCs are established under federal research rules (called the NIH Guidelines) and are charged with protecting against the human health and environmental risks of biotechnology research. The federal rules unequivocally establish that the meeting minutes must be made public.

The Sunshine Project complaint is related to a national survey of the public accountability of biological research institutions. The survey began in January and involves nearly 400 institutions nationwide. The Project continues to gather information for the survey's final report. The complaint stems from specific information access issues - that is, impediments to public disclosure imposed by the nine institutions - that have become apparent in the course of preparing the report. The Sunshine Project survey will identify ways to increase research transparency and counteract the toward biotechnology and biodefense secrecy.

A copy of the complaint, and supporting documentation, is available in the biodefense section of the Sunshine Project website.