Jan 24, 2014 – Big Pharma

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ANCHOR LEAD: HAS TOO MUCH RESTRICTION OF THE PHARMA/ACADEMIA RELATIONSHIP BEEN IMPOSED? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

The FDA now regulates how pharmaceutical companies interact with academic institutions, with an eye toward preserving objectivity on the part of researchers. Ben Park, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, says it is possible for such an undertaking to go too far.

PARK: I don’t want it to go the other way and teach our trainees to think that industry, pharmaceutical companies are evil. I think there has to be a comfortable balance between getting the right training, and that includes the understanding that industry is not the enemy, they are our partners, and yes, we do have to always think about how is this influencing our ability to think critically and objectively, that should be part of our training. Let’s get industry back here to some degree but let’s make sure we have
things in place, courses, training, lectures for our trainees to say, look these are the things you have to watch out for. :34

Industry provides an increasingly important piece of the funding pie for biomedical research, as federal commitments decline. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.