The Remarkable Case of the CEO of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Who Renounced a Major Conflict of Interest

Introduction; a Conflict of Interest Affecting the Trial of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

On July 17, 2020, the Brigham and Women's Hospital, a prestigious teaching hospital in Boston, announced it would be a major center for the randomized controlled trial of Moderna's mRNA based vaccine for COVID-19.  This would be the first of several eagerly awaited major RCT's of newly developed vaccines for this dangerous pandemic.  The press release noted that the hospital would be:

a clinical research site as part of the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), funded by the National Institutes of Health. In addition, Lindsey Baden, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at the Brigham and an expert in vaccine development for viral diseases, will serve as co-principal investigator for the study.

The press release also included this disclosure:

Dr. Betsy Nabel, the president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been a member of the Moderna Therapeutics Board of Directors since 2015 and has a financial interest in the company. Since its inception, this personal relationship has been reviewed and approved in accordance with Mass General Brigham conflict of interest policy and procedure, including a recent review in connection with the Phase 3 Study, and has been disclosed to the NIH/NIAID.

Although Dr Nabel would not directly participate in the trial, Dr Baden would apparently indirectly report to her as hospital CEO even though she would simultaneously be a board member of the company whose vaccine the trial was assessing. 

Another Example of What Was Once a "New Species of Conflict of Interest"

Thus Dr Nabel appeared to have a severe conflict of interest, the latest example of what we once called "a new species of conflict of interest."

In 2006, we first noticed that leaders of academic medicine also were serving as board members of large for-profit health care corporations.  The first example we discussed was that of Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor (equivalent to president) of the University of California - San Diego, and hence the person to whom the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and its academic medical center report. The conflict was between this position, and her service as a member of the board of directors of Boston Scientific, a medical device manufacture, and the board of directors of Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc., a contract research organization.

Later in 2006, we discussed a "new species of conflict of interest." 

Medical schools and their academic medical centers and teaching hospitals must deal with all sorts of health care companies, drug and device manufacturers, information technology venders, managed care organizations and health insurers, etc, in the course of fulfilling their patient care, teaching, and research missions. Thus, it seems that service on the board of directors of a such public for-profit health care company would generate a severe conflict for an academic health care leader, because such service entails a fiduciary duty to uphold the interests of the company and its stockholders. Such a duty ought on its face to have a much more important effect on thinking and decision making than receiving a gift, or even being paid for research or consulting services. Furthermore, the financial rewards for service on a company board, which usually include directors' fees and stock options, are comparable to the most highly paid consulting positions. What supports the interests of the company, however, may not always be good for the medical school, academic medical center or teaching hospital.

As Robert AG Monks put it, board members must "demonstrate unyielding loyalty to the company's shareholders" [Monks RAG, Minow N. Corporate Governance, 3rd edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. P.200.]  (Of course, after the global financial collapse of 2008 made us sadder and a little wiser, we realized that many board members actually seem to have unyielding loyalty to their cronies among top management.).

Dr Nabel's position on the board of directors of Moderna appears to be another example of this "board-level" conflict of interest.

Dr Nabel Does the Right Thing

On July 30, in the Boston Globe, Jonathan Saltzman reported that Dr Nabel had renounced her board position:

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said Thursday she was resigning from the Moderna board of directors after the Globe inquired about whether her position at the Cambridge biotech company conflicted with her hospital’s leadership role in a large study of Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

In fact Dr Nabel made the announcement while Mr Satzman was in the final stages of writing his article.  I know this because he had interviewed me about her conflict of interest earlier in the day.  So I got to unexpectedly make a new comment:

She did the right thing, It eliminates one issue that could have led to unfounded skepticism about this trial, and this is a trial where people have to trust the results.

In fact, this is the only case I can recall in which a top leader of a academic health care institution resigned from a for-profit health care corporate board after the conflict of interest presented by board membership was publicly pointed out.

Furthermore, the Globe article noted:

After Nabel announced her resignation, the Globe asked Brigham and Women’s whether she intended to keep the $6.5 million she collected in the recent sale of her Moderna stock.

Erin McDonough, a hospital spokeswoman, said, 'Dr. Nabel is considering a number of options, including charitable contributions.'

As we had previously discussed on Health Care Renewal, board level conflicts of interest can be extremely lucrative.  A typical board member of a large health care corporation makes hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, and can collect stock options and other financial instruments worth millions.  Such compensation is obviously  a strong incentive to continue the conflict of interest.  Yet here a board member is quitting, and at least  considering giving away millions of dollars worth of stock to nullify her conflict.  That is truly remarkable.

Perhaps in this age of a dangerous pandemic, and its continuing reckless mismanagement by the US president (for example, look here), health care leaders are thinking more about what is really important. As Mr Saltzman wrote:

Medical ethics experts said it was worrisome that the head of the Harvard-affiliated teaching hospital had a financial stake in the vaccine, particularly given that many people are already skeptical of vaccines. Recent public opinion polls show up to half of Americans are reluctant to get a COVID-19 vaccine when one is approved.

'Anti-vaxxers, critics, and kooks will use any appearance of financial conflict to undermine trust in vaccines,' said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. 'It’s just hyper-dangerous now.'

So it seems that Dr Nabel recognized the danger to the public, and to reduce it was willing to take action which would involve at least some degree of personal sacrifice.

We can only hope that others will follow her.