***** State of the Union LiveBlog Thread III *****

[politicat]

190. It is, in my field, but truly, it can get worse.

Right now, in my field*, we run 51% non-corp funding and 49% corporate funding. We are keeping it that way by almost pure force of will. That means that while the corps have an interest in what our research produces, they can't stop us from publishing the results they don't like, and they can't prevent us from publishing data that is in the public's interest. They also cannot prevent us from reporting to the FDA when the research warrants.

Right now, I have 3 FDA label warnings to my credit. The day I get a dangerous drug pulled from the market is the day I retire. If Pharma is calling the shots, we lose the ability to kill drugs like Vioxx because those drugs are profitable, and Pharma will take their chances with a class action and the FDA. More importantly, since the research is at least partly publicly funded, it automatically enters the public domain and cannot be patented or suppressed as a trade secret.

If all of the research is under patent, science stops and it becomes much harder to challenge the dangerous.

* I'm in neuropsych, so we work with Pharma a lot.