Virginia Commonwealth University could risk its national reputation among scientific researchers, its ability to win research grant money and its credibility in the local community if it continues secretive research agreements with Philip Morris USA, a group of VCU faculty discussed at an on-campus meeting yesterday.
Eighteen faculty and researchers came to the meeting at the Student Commons building to discuss concerns stemming from a “research service agreement” that VCU entered into in 2006 with the locally based tobacco firm. The terms of the agreements forbid researchers to discuss the contracts and require VCU to immediately alert Philip Morris if the news media asks about them.
The existence of the research contracts was revealed in a front-page article in the New York Times last month, touching off a controversy about the manner in which VCU conducts research. Since then, VCU has been castigated by experts from other research institutions across the country and on blogs by which VCU scientists informally communicate with peers in other institutions.
Backing the Philip Morris relationship, VCU President Eugene Trani has said that the agreements are not basic research but commonly used consulting agreements. According to Trani, the secrecy and special conditions involved with the contracts are necessary because of proprietary material involved. Trani has appointed an internal task force to review VCU’s corporate-sponsored research and prepare a report by Oct. 1. The report will later be sent to the school’s Board of Visitors.
The professor who led the meeting declined to be quoted by name. This reporter was not invited to the meeting but learned of it and was allowed to monitor it if no individuals were quoted directly without their approval. Some participants said they wanted to try to work out the issues internally before going to the outside media.
At the meeting, faculty discussed rumors and fears that are circulating at VCU. Some said that faculty and administrators are so fearful of retribution for questioning the tobacco contracts that they have been using their cell phones instead of the university phone system to talk about the matter. Additionally, some professors have considered trying to file documents to protect themselves with the university human resources department.
A major source of concern involves Dr. Francis Macrina, VCU’s vice president for research, who is heading the investigative committee and who appointed two members of the task force. It would seem to be a conflict of interest, faculty members noted, for the university official who oversaw negotiations of the contracts that touched off the controversy to head the probe into the propriety of those contracts.
Another point of frustration, the faculty said, is that they cannot get information clarifying Philip Morris’s relationship or future relationship with several major VCU health projects. The information they receive, they claim, has been contradictory or incomplete. Consequently, they say, rumors are swirling around the health initiatives. These include:
The Massey Cancer Center. Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, has matched employee contributions to the cancer research institute. Faculty said that the university may be conflicted if it accepts money from a company whose products cause cancer, which the Massey Center is trying to cure.
The VCU Women’s Health Center. According to campus rumors, Philip Morris may have been asked to supply from $20 million to $30 million for the center – though no one at the meeting was certain of the tobacco company’s role. One concern was that Philip Morris advertisements target women to interest them in smoking cigarettes.
The proposed School of Public Health. Philip Morris is rumored to be a possible contributor for this new school which could be up for accreditation within two years. However, one faculty member expressed concern that funding from a tobacco company, whose products harm public health, could put the school’s accreditation in jeopardy.
Some faculty involved in community outreach noted that if VCU specialists try to promote health in inner cities or other neighborhoods, their credibility could be compromised. It was pointed out, for example, that if VCU workers try to encourage children at Boys and Girls Clubs not to start smoking, they might have a difficult time if it is known that VCU encourages tobacco funding of its research.
More worries stem from suggestions that VCU researchers might have trouble finding national grant money. Already, national media, including television networks, are rumored to be considering stories about the situation and that could only further damage VCU’s reputation. It was said that national scientific research groups such as the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were aware of the tobacco research controversy at VCU and were monitoring it.
Nicole Buckley, a spokeswoman at the AAMC in Washington, said she was aware of the situation at VCU but her group was not actively “monitoring” the situation in Richmond because it is an advocacy group, not an accreditation agency. Her organization does not have a policy for or against tobacco-funded research but has a general policy stating that all medical research should be transparent and not involve financial conflicts. For example, the AAMC has just issued a recommendation that medical schools adopt policies that prohibit drug industry gifts and services to physicians, faculty, residents, and students. “The AAMC supports transparency in the relationships between academia and industry in order to maintain the public's trust in the medical and research enterprise,” she said.
R’Biz contacted the Centers for Disease Control for comment, but the CDC spokesperson was unable to respond before publication.
VCU faculty said that Trani had attended the first meeting of the task force to study corporate funding on June 10. He told committee members that they were free to research what they wanted and that he would pay for outside consulting help if they so desired. Trani will be out of town for most of the summer, the faculty said, but he instructed the committee members to carry on their queries as freely as they wanted in his absence.
Current research service contracts with Philip Morris, totaling about $284,000, involve studies of pulmonary disease and wastewater pollution. VCU provided this reporter with copies of the Master Service Agreement under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, but refused to provide specific “task orders” that give details about the actual work to be done.