Introduction
To the Editor:
The editorial in your October issue1 wisely asserts: "The great unspoken reality is that relationships between companies and researchers are not only becoming the norm, but they are also essential for medicine to progress. Without the exchange of expertise and knowledge between industry and academia, much of medical progress would falter." I wholeheartedly agree and offer further perspective on this vital and highly productive interdependence.
Biomedical research is increasingly complex, fast moving, global and costly, so the basic and applied sciences are often too much for single players. Collaboration is not simply advantageous, it is essential to deliver the benefits that the public has come to expect.
The public, however, remains suspicious and your editorial reinforces a common anti-industry prejudice. You write: "It must be the biomedical community that says 'we have to talk to these companies' and 'their money really helps push medicine forward'." These words describe a gulf between industry and others. In fact, industry scientists are, and always have been, an integral part of the biomedical community. Also, research-based companies, employing thousands of scientists, contribute far more than money.
All of us share the responsibility for mutual respect, for promoting collaboration and for explaining interdependence and fair exchange. Here the industry is in complete agreement with calls for transparent funding and we support the laudable goal of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, a bipartisan legislative initiative that would disclose industry payments.
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As academic researchers move toward transparency programs—that will allow the public to see what is paid to whom and for what—we believe there is both challenge and opportunity. The challenge is to avoid mismatching disclosures, which could produce apparent discrepancies between what is reported by the payer and by the recipient. These artifacts of different accounting structures and systems might be misinterpreted and lead to overreaction that could curb or halt perfectly meritorious and ethical collaborations.
The opportunity lies in developing and sharing disclosure processes that are simple, robust and designed to help all users to understand more easily the value chain that drives productive collaborative research. That goal of common reporting models and standards is in everyone's interest; it is timely and it is feasible. Insofar as we can appropriately contribute to that effort, we want to do so. It will allow both sides to achieve greater consistency and efficiency, and equal or greater transparency, in our many endeavors together.
