The chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Pearson Sunderland III, has pleaded guilty to accepting approximately $300,000 in undisclosed fees and expenses from Pfizer between 1997 and 2004. The NIMH is a part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health (NIH), which conducts and funds medical research projects. NIH staff are permitted to earn external income, subject to disclosure and approval from ethics watchdogs. Matthew Dolan reports that "in late 1997, representatives of Pfizer approached Sunderland about his agency joining a scientific collaboration" on indicators for Alzheimer's disease. Sunderland is only one of 44 NIH scientists that have had undisclosed financial deals with drug companies. However, he is one of the few to face charges with most either disciplined or retired from the agency. Sunderland's lawyer, Robert F. Muse, claimed that many NIH staff viewed disclosure forms as "a bureaucratic nuisance."

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission directed "companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers," to "disclose those relationships." Otherwise, it could be deceptive marketing, as people are more likely to trust product endorsers "based on their assumed independence from the marketer," according to the FTC. While the FTC will examine potentially deceptive word-of-mouth marketing on a case-by-case basis, the agency rejected a request from the watchdog group Commercial Alert to review industry practices. The head of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) called the FTC's decision "an endorsement of the industry's efforts to police itself." Advertising Age reports that the FTC ruling "could lead to increased spending" on word-of-mouth marketing. O'Dwyer's PR Daily calls the ruling a victory for WOMMA, which had "urged the FTC to note the difference between buzz marketing, which it supports and promotes, and stealth marketing, which it opposes."