Leading US cancer hospital alters conflict of interest rules after controversies

One of the US’s leading cancer hospitals has banned its board members from investing in start-up companies that originate within the institution after recent negative headlines related to staff conflicts of interest.

The Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in Manhattan, New York, also announced that its vice president Gregory Raskin, a physician, will turn over to his employer nearly $1.4m (£1.1m; €1.2m) of a windfall stake in a biotech company called Y-mAbs Therapeutics, which specialises in children’s cancer treatments derived from research conducted at the institution.

The developments follow a series of unflattering headlines regarding the centre. Last month an investigation by the New York Times and the watchdog group ProPublica found that the hospital’s chief medical officer, José Baselga, had published dozens of articles in major journals without mentioning extensive and often relevant industry …