At Virginia Commonwealth U, Scientists Cannot Publish Or Even Discuss Research W/O Phillip Morris OK

On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va. That is largely because hardly any faculty members or students there know that there is something to debate — a contract with extremely restrictive terms that the university signed in 2006 to do research for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest tobacco company and a unit of Altria Group.

The contract bars professors from publishing the results of their studies, or even talking about them, without Philip Morris’s permission. If “a third party,” including news organizations, asks about the agreement, university officials have to decline to comment and tell the company. Nearly all patent and other intellectual property rights go to the company, not the university or its professors.

“There is restrictive language in here,” said Francis L. Macrina, Virginia Commonwealth’s vice president for research, who acknowledged that many of the provisions violated the university’s guidelines for industry-sponsored research. “In the end, it was language we thought we could agree to. It’s a balancing act.”

But the contract, a copy of which The New York Times obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information law, is highly unusual and raises questions about how far universities will go in search of scarce research dollars to enhance their standing. It also brings a new dimension to the already divisive debate on many campuses over whether it is appropriate for universities to accept tobacco money for research.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/22tobacco.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1211476431-PmvVTRM+3s6SNWzjZPGukA

If they allow themselves to be suckered into such a BS deal then they deserve to have to face it.

The entire state of Virginia is run from the boardroom of Altria Group, not just a university?

In a just world, Altria would be nationalized, as the product they are profiting from is injurious to public health. After nationalization, the product would be sold at cost, by the state, with aids to quit smoking included in each package.

or at least, nasty pics, like the Canadians and the Aussies have:

How can they even show their faces around any peer-reviewed journals?