In 2018, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s chief medical officer, Dr. José Baselga, resigned under fire over his failure to disclose payments from health care companies in dozens of research articles he wrote. Now, recent Internal Revenue Service filings show the nonprofit hospital paid more than $1.5 million in severance to Dr. Baselga in 2018 and 2019. The revelations about the former executive led to significant changes governing Memorial Sloan Kettering’s ties to the health care and pharmaceutical industries and prompted an overhaul of its conflict-of-interest policies. The hospital would not say whether it paid additional severance to Dr. Baselga in 2020. A spokeswoman said the past payments reflected the hospital’s “contractual obligation” to Dr. Baselga under his employment agreement.

Source: New York Times December 22, 2020 18:56 UTC