Fifty-three percent of the life science faculty at top schools have reported financial ties to industry, reports the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. According to a survey in Health Affairs, about a third of the respondents had been consultants, a quarter paid speakers, and 20 percent received funding from industry. The researchers surveyed 3,080 academic life science researchers in 2007, and had a 70 percent response rate.
As a side note, two of the three health bills currently before the US Congress contain provisions to require drug, medical devices and medical supply companies to disclose their financial ties to doctors, reports the New York Times.
Also, Derek Lowe mentions an editorial in BioCentury that is against the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' new disclosure policy. That policy includes non-financial disclosures and asks authors to "report any personal, professional, political, institutional, religious, or other associations that a reasonable reader would want to know about in relation to the submitted work." The editorial says: "Beyond the obvious and profound assault on privacy and liberty, the notion that personal beliefs, as signaled by political or religious affiliations, are relevant when assessing peer-reviewed research, is an assault on science itself."