Eli Lilly Exec Heads to Harvard Medical School
Thursday, 11 February 2010
"Does this appointment signify that Harvard Medical School intends to even further strengthen its research ties to the pharmaceutical industry?"
Lest anyone had illusions about the nature of a new policy (still under development) that is to guide interactions between Harvard Medical School faculty and the drug industry, the Boston Globel reports that Dr. William Chin, Eli Lilly's senior VP for "discovery and clinical research" is to assume "a newly created job" at Harvard Medical School.

So much for pronouncements by Harvard about taking steps to distance medicine and medical research from the influence of Big Pharma.

As Dr. Arnold S. Relman, professor emeritus of medicine and social medicine at Harvard, who is a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, notes, "Does this appointment signify that Harvard Medical School intends to even further strengthen its research ties to the pharmaceutical industry?"

The revolving door between Harvard Medical School faculty and Eli Lilly executives is an example of sheer arrogance and a stunning disregard for public opinion--as is the comment by the dean of medical and translational research:
"We hired Bill to knock down those blocks. Bill Chin only cares about our patients and their families. It's not about the drug companies, it's about people with illness."

http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/663/94/