Some professors at the Harvard Medical School are the biggest beneficiaries of funding and gifts from the drug industry.
These conflicts of interest are causing some dissension within the student body, with some feeling “violated” when being lectured by professors who are paid consultants to drug makers.
This places the school in a difficult position. On one hand, especially at a school as revered as Harvard, the industry pays hundreds of millions of dollars to the faculty. On the other, is that money influencing what they teach to students?
That question is dividing both medical students and professors, with organizations being formed that support both sides of the argument.
It will be interesting to see how the situation resolves itself. Is Harvard willing to turn down drug money in an effort to “purify” its teaching? And, if not, how can anyone expect other hospitals and medical schools to do so?
