One hundred health-care and policy executives and professionals are asking the head of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund studies on medical ethics and conflicts of interest in medicine. In a 17 November letter to NIH director Francis Collins, the multinational group warns that relationships between industry and academics, medical educators and clinicians are flawed. The signatories seek to learn the extent to which commercial bias compromises medical and health-care information, and to identify appropriate interventions. A spokesman for the NIH says that the agency has not formally received the letter and could not comment.