(Circulation. 2001;103:e9003.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular News
Conflicting Desires
It did not really start with Jesse Gelsinger, the first known casualty of the battle to perfect gene therapy, but the altruistic 19-year-old gave the problem a face. That face generated a firestorm of publicity that brought to the fore a potential problem that most in medicine would prefer not to confront—conflict of interest in an era of growing industry investment in the development of new drugs and treatments.
The reasons that most scientists and physicians prefer not to confront these issues is that they think that the monetary and professional interests involved do not taint their work and their concern for the research subjects who become their patients. As Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, MPH, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, said in her November 1, 2000, editorial, "It is vitally important that these institutions develop conflict of interest policies, have oversight mechanisms in place, and continuously monitor the relationships of faculty with sponsoring companies and agencies. Without these policies and procedures, the academic institutions where most clinical research is based and their faculty members who perform the research are in gave danger of losing the support and respect of the public. Without this support and respect, trust in new medical discoveries and their applications will not be forthcoming. Without trust, medical research is doomed" (JAMA. 2000;284:2237–2238).
In the New England Journal of
Medicine, Joseph B. Martin, MD, PhD, and Dennis L. Kasper,
MD, of Harvard Medical School note that "current Harvard Medical