A dispute between a medical researcher and her drug company sponsor has led Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children to commission an external review of how it monitors clinical trials sponsored by drug companies.

Scores of the hospital's scientists and researchers signed a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the dispute between Dr Nancy Olivieri and the Toronto based pharmaceutical company Apotex. As the hospital's review will not examine the dispute specifically many hospital staff remain dissatisfied with its action. The situation has raised public concerns about potential conflicts between research ethics and drug firms' needs for profits.

In 1995 Dr Olivieri agreed …