July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Almost four dozen scientists at the National Institutes of Health violated rules governing outside contracts with the pharmaceutical industry and nine may be investigated for criminal violations, U.S. lawmakers said.

Forty-four scientists failed to report income from drugmakers or take personal leave for outside work or seek approval before starting such work, an internal NIH review found. The probe cleared 37 scientists, said Representatives Joe Barton, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat.

The NIH review suggested the agency's ethics issues are widespread, the lawmakers said in a statement. A Congressional inquiry last year uncovered potential conflicts of interest among senior NIH scientists, as many supplemented their incomes with thousands of dollars from consulting contracts with companies including Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker.

``These findings indicate that the ethical problems are more systemic and severe than previously known,'' Barton said in the news release. ``They also demonstrate the need for NIH to issue the final ethics rule as soon as possible.''

The NIH in February proposed banning researchers from consulting for drugmakers and other companies to address the ethical issues.

The agency may lose scientists because of the proposed restrictions on outside contracts, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni said in March. The NIH would still permit researchers to teach, lecture, write textbooks and review scientific articles.

Pfizer's contracts with NIH scientists ranged from $500 to more than $500,000 during a five-year period, the New York-based company told congressional staff members. Individual scientists typically received several thousand dollars, the staff found.

Pfizer spokesman Paul Fitzhenry didn't immediately return a phone call to his office seeking comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 14, 2005 10:15 EDT