Public-private collaboration in vaccine research.

摘要

Public sector scientists, for example those based in universities or in public health institutes, often collaborate with commercial organisations-including vaccine manufacturers-while taking on various advisory roles, mainly to regulatory agencies and policy makers. To what extent do these many roles constitute unacceptable bias or compromise? At one extreme, scientific independence of an individual or organisation might be inevitably compromised by commercial collaboration, whereas a contrary perspective argues that to systematically uncouple public health organisations from links to industry would deny or compromise the provision of crucial advocacy. Research and expertise in relation to immunisation policy decisions deserve special attention, because they affect the future health of large numbers of individuals. We believe that the public-private interface in vaccine research should be preserved.