Academic freedom is at risk in dispute over Gardasil, lecturers say

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BMJ 2008;336:741 (5 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39535.642025.DB

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/336/7647/741-a

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Academic freedom is at risk in dispute over Gardasil, lecturers say

Sweet

1 Sydney

Senior academics are outraged that the University of Queensland has

asked an academic to apologise to a drug company for his public comments

on a vaccine against human papillomavirus that was developed jointly by

the university and the company.

Academics at the university and elsewhere say that the request is a

threat to academic freedom and warn that it raises worrying concerns

about universities' independence and ability to negotiate conflicts of

interest.

The request came after the company, CSL, wrote to the university's vice

chancellor complaining about comments on the radio made by Gunn,

a senior lecturer in general practice.

The programme dealt with the general issue of pharmaceutical marketing

and briefly mentioned Gardasil, whose development has reaped millions of

dollars for the university as well as public and political kudos.

CSL's director of public affairs, , wrote: " I feel Dr Gunn's

comments are inappropriate and inconsistent with the long-standing

relationship CSL has with the University of Queensland and given the

involvement of the university in the development of Gardasil. "

On 14 March the university's secretary and registrar, Porter,

wrote to Dr Gunn, asking him to provide a written apology to CSL stating

that the " comments were made by you in your personal capacity and were

not endorsed or authorised by the university. " Mr Porter also asked to

be sent a copy of Dr Gunn's letter to CSL.

Dr Gunn said he was disappointed by the university's response and that

the company's complaint seemed to be aimed at stopping him from speaking

out again. " Even if you're fairly resistant to pressure, it's got to

make you think twice about saying potentially critical things about

their products, " he said.

Wayne Hall, of the university's School of Population Health, described

CSL's response as " heavy handed " and said that the university's response

was " disrespectful of the rights of academics to speak out on matters of

public interest. "

The university's executive dean of health sciences, , also

expressed concerns about the handling of the complaint and said that

universities generally needed to do a better job of resolving conflicts

of interest.

" If you've got very large amounts of money changing hands, then it's

very difficult, I think, not to let that influence you to some extent, "

he said. " It's a dilemma that universities have.

" Quite frankly, I have said that I think that if anybody at UQ

[university of Queensland] makes a statement about Gardasil, including

the inventors, if it's going to be a public statement then probably

under conflict of interest [guidelines] they should acknowledge that the

university receives significant funding from CSL each year. "

Glasziou, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the

University of Oxford and a former University of Queensland academic,

said that the freedom of academics to speak without interference from

their employers or government was crucial in an open society and that it

was reasonable for Dr Gunn to have used his academic title.

Del Mar, dean of health sciences and medicine at Bond University,

Robina, Queensland, and an honorary professor at the University of

Queensland, said that universities should support academics in saying

what they think. " Discourse and argument are the stock in trade of

academics, " he said. " To gag [argument] is anti-academic. "

Simon Chapman, of the University of Sydney's School of Public Health,

said that the registrar's letter should appal all researchers and

academics.

" The registrar and vice chancellor would do well to read their own

website on how academics should present themselves in public. The

University of Queensland's policy states: 'It is accepted practice that

where a member of staff is writing on something which is clearly within

the range of professional expertise, it is appropriate for the member of

staff's university position to be given.' "

Professor Chapman said that the registrar's suggestion that a university

would have official views on drug company promotions or a specific

vaccine is " both preposterous and inimical to academic freedom. "

Henry, adjunct professor at the School of Medicine and Public

Health at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, said that the

university's response was even more inappropriate than CSL's.

He said, " It is fairly predictable that a company will react to what

they see as a commercial threat, but it is very worrying that a

university would require an academic to get clearance before giving an

interview. "

" It shows that poor funding of Australian universities has led to

desperation in their attempts to raise funds from other sources,

including commercial companies. In doing this they are abandoning part

of their mission, which is to generate and communicate new knowledge in

a fearless and impartial way. "

Carolyn Allport, president of the National Tertiary Education Union,

added: " If freedom of inquiry is to be respected as a core

responsibility of universities, then it is important that both

universities and academics and researchers retain their rights to engage

in critical commentary, in the public interest. "

The University of Queensland's vice chancellor declined to comment and

referred the BMJ to Mr Porter, who said that Dr Gunn " had no authority

to speak on behalf of the university " and should not have mentioned his

university position.

" You're just beating this up, " he told the BMJ. " It's an absolute storm

in a teacup. "

Dr of CSL said that she had asked the university to clarify

whether Dr Gunn was speaking on behalf of the university, because " if

the university does not have access to correct information about our

products, it is clearly a more important issue than if the interview

simply reflected the opinions of an individual. "

She said, " Neither I nor anyone else at CSL has the power or the

inclination to 'gag academic freedom' or any form of freedom of speech,

and I am not aware of any arrangement with the university or any other

academic institution in Australia that would even allow for this

possibility. "

A spokesman for UniQuest, the university's commercial arm, said that the

exact value of Gardasil's returns to the university was confidential but

that it amounted to some millions of dollars annually.

________________________________

A transcript of Dr Gunn's comments is available at

www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2007/2108059.htm.