Many students say that Novartis has not actually interfered with publication or slowed their work in any way. Still, ethicists say, the agreement raises questions about the inclusion of student work in agreements over corporate-academic partnerships. "It's one thing for full-bore grown-up scientists to make decisions about where they want to go [for funding], but it's another thing to say that the work of our grad students is open for exploitation by a private company," says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "You could say, 'Well, the students that go there understand that that's part of the condition,' but I don't think they understand it at all."
Few institutions include students in fundraising because of practical and cultural reasons. The PMB faculty negotiators signed confidentiality agreements. "There was essentially no choice but to limit the flow of information from the meetings held to ...
