UNEASY ALLIANCE Clinical Investigators and the Pharmaceutical Industry

LINICAL practice is changing rapidly. New cardiovascular drugs, antiinflammatory drugs, cancer chemotherapy, and other pharmaco-logic weapons are being added to physicians ’ thera-peutic armamentarium virtually daily. Most clinical studies that bring new drugs from bench to bedside are financed by pharmaceutical companies. Many of these drug trials are rigorously designed, employing the skills of outstanding clinical researchers at leading academic institutions. But academic medical centers are no longer the sole citadels of clinical research. The past 10 years have seen the spectacular growth of a new research model. Commercially oriented networks of contract-research organizations (CROs) and site-management organi