Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest
in Research Universities

November 2, 2012

In the 1970s and 80s, widely publicized scandals resulting from research misconduct committed by federally-funded university scientists, some of whom had financial conflicts of interest (fCOIs), attracted harsh congressional attention and led to the first federal regulations on research misconduct, and later on individual fCOIs. Both regulations were first issued by the U.S. Public Health Service (in which the National Institutes of Health, NIH, sits), followed closely by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the two largest funders of university research in the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences. In the late 1990s, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sharply questioned the trustworthiness of research universities as stewards of federal research funds and overseers of research, especially when that research involved human subjects, when the institutions themselves had financial interests in the research conducted by their faculty scientists.  This interest of the OIG and of the NIH has only intensified in the ensuing years as research universities have been increasingly exhorted to become ever more deeply engaged with industry in accelerating the translation of their faculties’ inventive research into tangible public benefits.  Defining, let alone mitigating, institutional fCOIs in research universities becomes especially challenging as the institutions, in response to expanding public expectations, progressively accrete missions that may not themselves be concordant.

This symposium, organized by Dr. David Korn and co-sponsored by the The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and The Edmond Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, sought to clarify our understanding of institutional fCOIs in the contemporary research university, and our ability to implement effective policies that will ensure the continuing trustworthiness of these vital institutions. 

Welcome

Introduction and Overview

Panel One: Evolving Roles, Enduring Values, and Conflicting Public Expectations of American Research Universities

An Ethical Perspective on Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest

Professor Emanuel was unexpectedly unable to attend.  His slides can be accessed here.

Panel Two: Institutional Conflicts of Interest in Practice, Part 1

Dean's Welcome

Panel Three: Institutional Conflicts of Interest in Practice, Part 2

Panel Four: Institutional Conflicts of Interest in Awardee Institutions

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Concluding Session