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— Two Harvard teaching hospitals are now limiting senior officials’ daily outside pay as company directors to $5,000 and no longer allowing for stock options. While the $5,000 per day might not seem restrictive, some of the hospitals’ doctors who doubled as board members made over $200,000 a year, according to The New York Times.

— What do India and New Jersey have in common with Harvard? Stricter guidelines for conflict of interest. The Medical Council of India amended its ethics regulations to ban gifts from pharmaceutical companies, as well as require doctors to get permission from ethics bodies for any company-funded research. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s attorney general proposed a requirement for doctors to publicly disclose outside payments of $200 or more. (Pharmalot, AMNews)

— Researchers are recommending routine genetic testing for Ashkenazi Jewish women, who may be at greater risk for certain cancers. Though the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations occur in an estimated 2.5% of Ashkenazi Jewish women, both carried a 50% or greater risk of breast cancer among the over 2,000 women studied in this recent trial. (LATimes)

— The UK is facing a significant drop in clinical trials, according to new data from the country’s Department of Health. Mid-stage, late-stage and post-approval trials were at their lowest levels of the decade in 2009, despite efforts at recruitment in the National Health Service and easing the trials process for companies. (Financial Times)

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