A string of medical experts have lined up to criticise the decision by the University of Virginia School of Medicine to accept funding for medical research from tobacco company Philip Morris—to the tune of $20m.

The American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and the editor of the academic journal Tobacco have all condemned the news.

“A medical school taking funding from the tobacco industry is like a peace studies school taking funding from terrorists,” said Tobacco Control's editor Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he too was against the move.

“There is a growing body of evidence that this kind of arrangement results in biased studies in favour of the funder”. The real reason he suspects the tobacco industry does this is to help their image and improve the …