By accepting research money from tobacco giant Philip Morris, Virginia Commonwealth University compromised its integrity as a public health institution, several speakers told a university task force yesterday.

Some said the university and its medical school should sever its ties with Philip Morris. But others said Philip Morris isn't the problem -- VCU's process for accepting corporate research grants is.

Francis Macrina, vice president of research at VCU and chairman of a task force on corporate-sponsored research, said the university made a mistake when it agreed to a confidentiality clause with Philip Morris that appeared to offer secrecy to the company.

"It won't happen again," he said during the town-hall meeting at the Kontos Building on the MCV campus. "We will not enter into any agreements that support secrecy."

The New York Times published a front-page story in May that said VCU had signed a research agreement with Philip Morris that included a confidentiality clause that was "highly unusual" and "extremely restrictive."

While VCU denied some of the allegations in the story, it so roiled the VCU faculty that the president, Eugene P. Trani, appointed the task force to make recommendations on how VCU conducts business with outside researchers.

The 18-member task force held the town-hall meeting yesterday to hear from faculty and students. An estimated 75 attended the meeting, and about 20 spoke, many declining to give their names.

"Transparency at VCU is pathetic," said one speaker who did not identify herself.

Another speaker, a faculty member in the pharmaceutical sciences, defended corporate research in general.

"I've never had a situation in which I felt my integrity was endangered," he said.

VCU did not allow newspaper photographers to attend the meeting. Kia Bentley, associate dean of the School of Social Work, who presided over the two-hour meeting, said the school feared cameras would discourage open debate.

A second town-hall meeting will be held this fall, when students and many faculty have returned to the campus.

In the contract, Philip Morris paid VCU $286,000 to fund research on nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into rivers and on the onset of lung disease. The research agreements with Philip Morris and about five other corporate sponsors allow them to review any proposed publication of research to protect patent and intellectual-property rights.

Several faculty members said this is standard practice and is acceptable, as long as publication of the research is not halted.

But others argued that even contracting with Philip Morris, whose product causes cancer, was unethical and should be stopped.

Task force member Dan Ream, president of the Faculty Senate at VCU, said some schools with public-health arms, such as VCU, have sought to ban tobacco-sponsored research, but voting faculty members have overridden those bans.

But a spokesman for the American Lung Association said several public universities, including Harvard and Johns Hopkins, have voted to turn down tobacco research money.

Several faculty members inquired about a rumor that Philip Morris plans to donate $20 million to VCU so the school can build a women's health center to combat infant mortality.

Macrina said he knew nothing about that and directed inquiries to a vice president for development, who was on vacation and not present.

Some wondered how a confidentiality agreement could be reached with a corporation without halting the publication of research information.

"That's a good question," Bentley said. The task force will address that, she said.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.