BLOGSCAN - "Academic" Contract Research Organizations - What Will They Think Of Next?

On the Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma blog, Dr Howard Brody discussed an article in the British Medical Journal by Jeanne Lenzer about the increasing role that contract research organizations (CROs) are taking in clinical research. Particularly enlightening were the discussions of academic CROs, a species not previously much in the limelight. It seems that medical schools, academic medical centers, and even schools of public health, stung by the loss of industry sponsored research to for-profit CROs, have spawned their own line of extra industry friendly affiliates. It seems not-for-profit academic medicine is getting less and less distinguishable from their for-profit benefactors.