Word: ponting
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...corporate leaders were just beginning to get over the initial shock caused by the announcement of a ten-year, $60 million grant for research in genetic engineering given to Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital by a German firm last month, when they were jolted again on Monday. Du Pont, the chemical and drug conglomerate that dominates the state of Delaware, had promised $6 million to another group of geneticists, and once again the recipients are associated with Harvard--this time through the Medical School itself...
Since the University made headlines last fall with a proposal for joining one of its faculty members in sponsoring a commercial genetic research concern, Harvard has become closely associated with the scramble to squeeze profits from exotic biomedical innovations. The two most recent agreements with Du Pont and the German company, Hoechst-Roussel, differ vastly from the failed attempt to set up a business with Mark S. Ptashne, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. But all three cases have contributed to a nation-wide reevaluation of academic-commercial links and a hurried attempt by members of Congress and the administration...
Thus, eager to keep up with the latest discoveries made in university labs and, in the long run, hopeful that basic research will lead to marketable products. Du Pont, Hoechst, and other companies have readily supplied cash for projects that in the past have been backed primarily by federal agencies. Large research universities like Harvard have openly sought these new sources of income, arguing, as President Bok did in his annual report this year, that with extreme vigilance, academic values will not be threatened by the new corporate connections...
...support work going on there. He told the NIH that Hoechst's main interests are to obtain up-to-date information and have a place to train its best young scientists. Alan C. Olsson, dean for resources at the Med School and one of the masterminds behind the Du Pont deal, agrees emphatically, saying that although Du Pont has not requested training positions for its people, the company's main interest "is forwarding investigations that will lead to scientific advancements, not racing to get the rights to discoveries that may never be made...
Under the Du Pont and Hoechst agreements, the grant recipient still retains the patents for discoveries made with corporate funds, but the companies are given exclusive licenses to develop and market any products that result. One concern described in an interview by Doris Merritt, a research and training resources officer at NIH, is that private benefactors will pressure scientists to hold off on patenting their innovations--keeping them secret--until the discoveries "are fine-tuned and ready to be sold." In what has become a widely quoted warning, Merritt told the NIH conference. "Publish or perish doesn't need...