Increasing ties between the private sector and academic institutions have led to growing concerns about financial conflicts of interest. Faculty involved in characterizing or testing products and procedures under industry sponsorship face a potential conflict of interest if they perceive that the sponsoring company desires a particular outcome from the research.

It is common for medical researchers to be paid by a drug company to compare a sponsor’s drug therapy to that of a competitor’s. Some studies have shown that published results from this research typically favors the sponsor’s product [see, for instance, Stelfox et al.] The source of this pattern is not clear: Are the studies designed to favor the sponsor? Are unfavorable results suppressed (i.e., never published)? Is the data being interpreted in a biased manner? Do companies only sponsor research that they anticipate will produce favorable results? While the possible explanations are many, the investigator is very likely aware that someone who continually produces results unfavorable to the sponsor’s products may be less likely to receive funding from that sponsor in the future.

Arguably, sponsors should want the most accurate results possible. Only then can they make reasonable long-term plans. No drug company wants to be surprised by unintended side-effects a year after it releases a drug. It is not clear, however, that long term considerations always dominate, and hence the investigator must take extra precautions to maintain objectivity in corporate-sponsored research.

In addition to the financial ties inherent in corporate-sponsored research, other ties may be present. Such ties include, but are not limited to, part ownership of a company (such as through stocks and stock options). Research results may have an impact on the value of the company and thus on the value of an investigator’s interest in a company. The actual impact will be determined by a wide range of factors, among which would be the significance of the research project as compared to the overall scale of the company.