Conference on "Conflicted Science"

(A conference from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group
that tends to look at nutrition and health issues as affected by corrupted
research.  Their cause allies with the information freedom struggle by way
of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980.  The Bayh-Dole Act is easily the most
significant reason why our public research institutions are not among the
strongest champions joining the rest of us in the information freedom
fight.  Bayh-Dole is the Act that managed to take the scare quotes off the
ludicrous term "intellectual property."  Public Knowledge also takes up the
Bayh-Dole issue.  Text from the CSPI page http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/
pasted below.  Forwarded from a media-related investigative journalism
list.  -- Seth)


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fw: Conference on "Conflicted Science"
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:36:26 +0200
From: Per Dalen <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Below is a forwarded message on a forthcoming conference.
Further information at the conference website.

Per


----------- Forwarded message follows -----------

CSPI Announces Conference on "Conflicted Science"

Will Address Corporate Efforts to Manipulate Science

Scientists, academicians, journalists, and policy advocates will convene in
Washington on July 11 to address corporations' use of science to manipulate
public opinion and influence public policy on health and the environment.
The landmark conference was announced today by the nonprofit Center for
Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

Sessions include panels on how corporate dollars thwart research on health
risks, suppress information about toxic products, and shape the federal
research agenda. Conferees will present remedies to prevent conflicts of
interest, to improve the transparency of the federal scientific advisory
process, to hold corporations accountable, and to enhance the media's role
in disclosing conflicts of interest.

Among the presenters are Drummond Rennie, M.D., deputy editor of the Journal
of the American Medical Association; Marion Nestle, Ph.D., chair of the
Department of Nutrition at New York University, and author, Food Politics;
Alicia Mundy, author, Dispensing With the Truth; Sheldon Krimsky, Ph.D.,
professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University and author,
Science in the Private Interest; and Lisa Bero, Ph.D., professor of clinical
pharmacy at University of California, San Francisco and co-author, The
Cigarette Papers.

"The public is not aware that tactics used by the tobacco industry to
manipulate science are also widely used by other industries," said Virginia
A. Sharpe, director of CSPI's Integrity in Science project. "This conference
seeks to shed light on how pharmaceutical, food, chemical, and other
companies fund scientific research in the service of those industries'
short-term gain."

The conference, titled "Conflicted Science," will take place on July 11,
2003, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Wyndham City Center Hotel, 1143 New
Hampshire Avenue, NW in Washington. The full conference agenda, list of
participants, and registration materials are available at
http://www.conflictedscience.org


Jeff Howard, Doctoral Student
Dept. of Science and Technology Studies (http://www.rpi.edu/dept/sts/)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute                e-mail  [email protected]
110 Eighth St.                          phone   (817) 536-1855
Troy, NY 12180-3590 USA         fax     (928) 438-2189
#############


Per Dalen <[email protected]>

    For information about the Media list and how to (un)subscribe please
read
    http://www.pi.se/laurin/media/media.htm .

----

> http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/

Over the last thirty years, the commercialization of science in the United
States and around the world has increased dramatically. The revolution in
genetics, patent protections for bioengineered molecules, laws strengthening
intellectual property rights, and the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act authorizing
licensing and patenting of results from federally-sponsored research have
all created new incentives for scientists, clinicians, and academic
institutions to join forces with for-profit industry in an unprecedented
array of entrepreneurial activities.
 
Although many have cheered partnerships between industry and the research
community, it is also acknowledged that they entail conflicts of interest
that may compromise the judgment of trusted professionals, the credibility
of research institutions and scientific journals, the safety and
transparency of human subjects research, the norms of free inquiry, and the
legitimacy of science-based policy.
 
For example: 

- There is strong evidence that researchers’ financial ties to chemical,
pharmaceutical, or tobacco manufacturers directly influence their published
positions in supporting the benefit or downplaying the harm of the
manufacturer’s product.

- A growing body of evidence indicates that pharmaceutical industry gifts
and inducements bias clinician judgment and influence doctor’s prescribing
practices.

- There are well-known cases of industry seeking to discredit or prevent the
publication of research results that are critical of its products.

- Studies of life-science faculty indicate that researchers with industry
funding are more likely to withhold research results in order to secure
commercial advantage.

- Increasingly, the same academic institutions that are responsible for
oversight of scientific integrity and human subjects protection are entering
financial relationships with the industries whose product-evaluations they
oversee.

In response to the commercialization of science and the growing problem of
conflicts of interest, the Integrity in Science Project seeks to: 

- raise awareness about the role that corporate funding and other corporate
interests play in scientific research, oversight, and publication;

- investigate and publicize conflicts of interest and other potentially
destructive influences of industry-sponsored science;

- advocate for full disclosure of funding sources by individuals,
governmental and non-governmental organizations that conduct, regulate, or
provide oversight of scientific investigation or promote specific scientific
findings;

- encourage policy-makers at all levels of government to seek balance on
expert advisory committees and to provide public, web-based access to
conflict-of-interest information collected in the course of committee
formation;

- encourage journalists to routinely ask scientists and others about their
possible conflicts of interests and to provide this information to the
public.