From bench to bedside : impact of conflict-of-interest restrictions at academic medical centers on clinical trials

Abstract

Successful translation of scientific discovery into new medicines is most successful with collaboration between academics - scientists and physicians - and industry. In recent years, there has been increasing concern at academic medical centers about the impact of relationships with industry on patient care and student education. This has generally resulted in more stringent conflict-of-interest rules. This paper seeks to better understand the impact of these conflict-of-interest rules. In the first part, it explores research to-date on the importance of relationships between industry and academia and discusses some of the concerns that have arisen. In the second part, this relationship is better characterized with clinical trial data. The findings suggest that there is a strong trend towards schools with higher conflict-of-interest rules having fewer clinical trials. This suggests that although there may be benefits to stricter regulation, there are trade-offs in terms of clinical translation.