Conflict of Interest=

A Danger to society?

Content

• Gelsinger Case• Code of Conduct and the non-existing fight vs.

greed• Government Officials and the industry

Cutting edge medical treatments -Blessing or curse?

• Research in general is vital to our society• Medical research can save lives• Medical research can destroy lives

Gene Therapy & Gelsinger

• Jesse Gelsinger (18) had a rare metabolic disease• Joined drug trial University of Pennsylvania, hoping

to overcome disease• Gelsinger died four years later, as result from the

treatment• Investigation shows:– He was not a suitable test subject– Dangerous side effects were not disclosed– The University, as well as the head researcher had

financial stakes in the trial

Code of Conduct vs. Greed

• Why was Gelsinger not informed about severe consequences of taking the drug, observed in previous test subjects?

• Why was he even included, even though he had too high ammonia?

• What made the researchers so careless?

• Money or ambition?

Repercussions

• Jesse Gelsinger died• Ongoing investigations• Impact on University’s reputation• Fundamental setback to Gene Therapy

• Could indivual ambition really have caused this?

Disadvantages of unrestricted research funding

• The freedom to use or recommend better products

• The freedom to collaborate with companies that are more beneficial to her research

• Morality – One’s perspective changes when offered a big stack of money

National Institute of Health (US)

• NIH scientists also working for private companies• “Well paid work”• Ban on many kinds of financial transactions

between NIH scientists and the medical industry in 2005

• Followed by complaints by scientists and loosening of the rules

• Is that a morally acceptable reaction?• Is there a difference between “well paid work” and

a “bribe”?

Development in Universities

• Especially universities in America and the west established guidelines to cope with relationships between researchers and the industry

• Those guidelines were built on bad experience, i.e. they learned from their mistakes and aim to prevent them in the future

• Not so much in Taiwan

衛生局 (台灣 )

• Pushing universities to cooperate with the industry

• Wish for a more prosper country• Short-sighted• Too many bonds between government &

Universities and the industry already• Probably won’t change before a major

incident occurs

Who is to blame?

• The opportunity to obtain big chunks of money makes humans greedy

• To blame are most of us humans for not having moved on to post-materialism

• We cannot enforce it to happen so we have to fix it in other ways

• Relativity of morality and ethics makes it hard to setup generally accepted rules and laws

How far does it go?

• Moore v. Regents of the University of California– Mr. Moore’s leukemia was treated by university– Mr. Moore’s cells –without his knowledge- were

used for research that eventually was developed into a commercialized cancer treatment

– Mr. Moore “had no right to any share of the profits realized from the commercialization of anything developed from his discarded body parts”

Vicious Cycle

• In addition to the human greed and selfishness, the main reason is lack of regulations to cope with Conflicts of Interest

• Lack of regulation is often caused by “close collaborations” between the ones in charge and the industry (often in the indirect form of lobbyists)

• Which means that the reason for lack of regulations is a Conflict of Interest

• A vicious cycle.