Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff of Emory University, one of the nation’s leading psychiatrists and a prominent Emory University figure, received at least $2.8 million in consulting fees from companies whose drugs he was evaluating and failed to report income of more than $1.2 million, thus violating federal regulations.

From 2000 through 2006, Dr. Nemeroff received just over $960,000 from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, but reported to Emory that he received no more than $35,000, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a letter Thursday to Emory President James Wagner.

From 2003 to the summer of 2008, Nemeroff was the chief investigator on a $3.9 million National Institutes of Health study on five Glaxo drugs for treatment of depression, the letter stated. Dr. Nemeroff repeatedly denied having a significant financial relationship with Glaxo, said Sen. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has been investigating ties between academic researchers and the medical industry.

Friday evening, Emory released a statement saying that Nemeroff voluntarily stepped down as chairman of the psychiatry department at Emory pending a resolution of the matter. Emory said was "working diligently to determine whether our policies have been observed consistently" and called the allegations made by Sen. Grassley "serious."

Sen. Grassley began its investigation with Dr. Melissa P. DelBello of the University of Cincinnati, who reported income of about $100,000 between 2005 and 2007, while drug maker AstraZeneca’s records showed the company alone had paid DelBello $238,000 within that time.

Senator Charles Grassley leads the Congressional inquiry which is currently demanding that top researchers provide their conflict-of-interest disclosures, and Mr. Grassley is comparing those documents with records of actual payments from drug companies. The comparison often brings to light new questions and problems related to the transparency of the relationship between academic researchers and the medical industry.