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Reblogged:Raising a Glass for Privately-Funded Research

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Jeff Jacoby makes a point you rarely see these days: "Research Isn't Tainted Just Because Industry Picks Up the Tab." Jacoby's point of departure is a new study about the health benefits of moderate drinking, which is largely funded by (gasp!) five major manufacturers of alcoholic beverages:

s there any good reason for industry funding to be inherently suspect?
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There is no indication that the corporate donors will have any involvement in the design or conduct of the study. The project's principal investigator, Harvard Medical School Professor Kenneth Mukamal, told the Times he hadn't even known about the companies' backing. "This isn't anything other than a good old-fashioned NIH trial," he said. "We have had literally no contact with anyone in the alcohol industry in the planning of this." Gemma Hart, an Anheuser-Busch vice president, concurs: "We have no role in the study. We will learn the outcome of the study when everybody else does."

Of course it is wise to be wary of conflicts of interest; when corruption in research is discovered, it should be publicized and penalized. But "industry" and "corrupt" are not remotely synonymous. Business is indispensable to scientific exploration and employment. It is no more logical to automatically distrust research funded by industry than to distrust research funded by government, advocacy groups, or opinionated philanthropists. Research is expensive and someone has to pay for it. Chase away a major source of scientific funding, and the result will be less research. [format edits, bold added]
I agree with Jacoby, although, I would have liked him to mention the following: When a certain agency with the power of coercion -- namely, the government -- both funds science and stands to gain more power if results can be made to justify (or appear to justify) a given policy position, there is a built-in reason to be suspicious that there is a conflict of interest. Most in the media not only automatically suspect business of being an untrustworthy backer of science; they turn a blind eye to this other possibility if they are aware of it at all.

-- CAV

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