Conflicts of Interest Among Researchers?

"Studied Interest" reports that the nation's medical schools have been heavily infiltrated by pharmaceutical companies, eroding the objectivity of university researchers. Moreover, the universities are financially invested in their professors’ research through patents, equity, and technology transfer collaborations.

"Studied Interest" was funded by the Open Society Institute and published by The American Prospect Online. Similar concerns have been voiced repeatedly by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Relevance: At present, there is no mechanism to examine conflicts of interest among researchers who participate in studies of the efficacy of cord blood treatments. Some of these researchers have links to cord blood banks or to companies which seek to market treatments developed from cord blood.