Sell out of Academia_Pfizer Buys Academia (part 3)

Pfizer (the biggest drug dealer in the world) again announces a pay off to infiltrate into publically funded academic labs in an effort to develop their pipeline for profit-making drug. Tax payer- funded academic research laboratories all over the country are being mixed in the pot for profit making deals for industry.

Who comes out the winner? Not taxpayers who pay out billions of dollars for little return.

Conflicts of interests and loss of patent rights within academic research make these academic-industrial complex deals stink for the public. While the public pays out billions of dollars, they get little in return and little focus into public health issues and public safety issues.

Pfizer has spent millions of dollars setting up collaborations in California and New York in labs that are taxpayer funded. Now Pfizer announces another $100 million dollar collaborations over the next five years with eight leading universities and research institutes in Massachusetts. It’s a lucrative investment for Pfizer who is making billions of dollars off the taxpayers back.

Public funding to academic laboratories that collaborate with money making companies should be withdrawn and given to laboratories that do research focused for the public good. In these hard hit economic times, it only makes sense. It will create more jobs which is something we need now.

The list of academic labs that have conflicts of interest with money-making schemes with rich pharma, persist to grow. These labs continue to take public funding while doing for profit research. They are in essence are double dipping into funds for research when other good scientist go without funding.

Here is only a partial list of academic institutes which do “for profit scientific research” for Pfizer and where public funding should be reconsidered for reallocation to other academic centers that focus research for the public’s welfare:

Boston University, Harvard University, Tufts University and University of Massachusetts Medical School., MIT, University of California San Francisco, Rockefeller University, New York University Langone Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, Columbia University Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Weill Cornell Medical College.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/pfizer-announces-100-million-research-collaboration-with-academic-scientists/33678

Misuse of Public Funds for Scientific Research

Certain universities are misusing public funds for scientific research. These universities, funded by the tax-payers dime, are networking and conducting scientific research to develope and increase “for-profit” pharmaceutical pipelines.

Thus enters a new world of academic industrialization of science, a relationship that makes for a conflict of interest not benefiting the public. It is not in the public’s interest to fund such university labs. And why should we?


Pfizer Inc, the largest and wealthiest pharmaceutical giant is one company that is benefiting from such networking practices with publically-funded universities. Through Pfizer's Center for Therapeutic Innovation, Pfizer scientists are relocating onto university campuses and working with publically funded labs and scientists for the sole purpose to increase Pfizer’s drug development, pipeline and patent holdings.

University scientists that “double dip” into both private and public money to support “for profit” private enterprise are not working in the public's interests.  "Double dipping" is not ethical, is not efficient, and is not in the best interest for the public or for science. Public funding should be withdrawn from universities laboratories which network to support “for-profit” industry research.

These public funds should instead be reallocated to other universities that need monies to conduct scientific exploration directed toward the public's good. Many universities remain underfunded while others double dip into private and public funds. Reallocating public monies to well-deserving and well-qualified universities who need funding for scientific exploration will create additional jobs to many qualified scientists.
Don’t misunderstand the reasoning behind this strategy. The public is not demanding to stop scientific research. Rather the public demands reallocation of public money for the public good. Reallocating public monies to universities which are in need of money and conduct research in the public’s interest instead of private interest is a sound economic strategy. In our hard hit economic times, this strategy will create jobs. It also will expand the scientific base which is a more efficient use of public funds to enhance scientific exploration.

It’s budget crisis time. Now is the perfect time to take a closer look at how our public money is being misused by some members in the scientific community for private profiterring. In fact it is time to reevaluate public funding strategies to certain research universities and institutes who double dip into both private and public funds.

Below is a partial list of the universities that are currently networking with Pfizer and double dipping into research funding. These universities and laboratories should undergo reevaluation in their ability to obtain public funding for scientific research:

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Rockefeller University
New York University Langone Medical Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Columbia University Medical Center
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshive University
Weill Cornell Medical College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)


ref: http://www.bioendeavor.net/CommonData/NewsFiles/Pfizer.pdf