Conflict of interest professor removed from cervical cancer research project team

DutchNews, September 14, 2015

The pathology professor at the centre of a conflict of interests case involving self-test kits for cervical cancer is no longer part of the research team, the VU University said on Monday. 

Chris Meijer was involved in three companies which stood to benefit from the switch to self-testing kits and had kept this secret, the NRC reported in June. 

The research project, involving 30,000 women, was halted after the revelations and is now set to resume, the paper says on Monday. 

Meijer has also resigned from the government’s health council, where he had also failed to come clean on his outside interests. The government agreed to bring in self-testing for some women on the basis of the council’s advice. 

The NRC revealed in June that Meijer has shares in and is joint owner of Delphi Bioscience which makes the equipment women can use to take a sample for testing. He is also part owner of Diassay which makes tests for the virus thought to cause some forms of cervical cancer and which is also part of the self-test system.

A third company in which Meijer has financial interests is called Self-Screen and was competing for the tender to run the new programme, the NRC says.