Many U.S. medical schools lack industry money rules
Article link.By Will Dunham Tue Feb 12, 4:47 PM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only about a third of U.S. medical schools have policies aimed at curbing conflicts of interest arising from their financial ties with companies like drug and medical device makers, researchers said on Tuesday.
Such businesses cultivate deep financial relationships with medical schools. Among other things, industry often relies on academic researchers to conduct studies that may help win government approval for drugs that could generate billions of dollars in sales.
The researchers asked 125 U.S. medical schools about their policies governing financial ties with industry. Eighty-six schools responded to the 2006 survey.
Only 38 percent had adopted a policy covering financial interests held by the institution. Thirty-seven percent were working on adopting such a policy, and the final 25 percent were doing nothing…
This article touches on two issues that are important for us. One, this should remind you about the ethical issue of conflicts of interest I talked about in my last post. Businesses want profits, and that could and often does interfere with proper health care. Two, the coordination of business and medical research is the main impetus for spreading research past national borders, which leads to the very problem of a lack of an international standard for research ethics that will dominate our second topic.
- Bryan