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

doi:10.1136/bmj.39535.642025.DB

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

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

Melissa Sweet

¹ Sydney

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Senior academics are outraged that the University of Queenslandhas asked an academic to apologise to a drug company for hispublic comments on a vaccine against human papillomavirus thatwas developed jointly by the university and the company.

Academics at the university and elsewhere say that the requestis a threat to academic freedom and warn that it raises worryingconcerns about universities’ independence and abilityto negotiate conflicts of interest.

The request came after the company, CSL, wrote to the university’svice chancellor complaining about comments on the radio madeby Andrew Gunn, a senior lecturer in general practice.

The programme dealt with the general issue of pharmaceuticalmarketing and briefly mentioned Gardasil, whose developmenthas reaped millions of dollars for the university as well aspublic and political kudos.

CSL’s director of public affairs, Rachel David, wrote:"I feel Dr Gunn’s comments are inappropriate and inconsistentwith . . . [Full text of this article]

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