The News
How beneficial is corporate role in medical research?
By Mark Yarborough, associate professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center and director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities
Article Last Updated: 02/24/2007 11:43:42 AM MST

The involvement of private business in medical research is "essential," according to a recent editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. After all, drug and medical device makers fund important product development and marketing. In fact, private industry in the United States funds a significantly larger portion of clinical research - the investigation of new drugs and devices in patients - than do the government and government-sponsored university programs, despite a recent increase the National Institutes of Health budget. Essential or not, the question remains as to whether the influence of private industry on biomedical research is beneficial overall.