ABSTRACT
Academic medical institutions are themselves growing increasingly beholden to industry. Some academic institutions have entered into partnerships with drug companies to set up research centers and teaching programs in which students and faculty members essentially carry out industry research. The term "technology transfer" entered the lexicon in 1980, with the passage of federal legislation that encouraged academic institutions supported by federal grants to patent and license new products developed by their faculty members and to share royalties with the researchers. If the public begins to perceive academic medical institutions and clinical researchers as gaining inappropriately from cozy relations with industry —relations that create conflicts of interest and contribute to rising drug prices—there will be little sympathy for their difficulties. Academic institutions and their clinical faculty members must take care not to be open to the charge that they are for sale.
