Medicine, Morals and Money

with Nancy Olivieri, MD, FRCPC, Professor, Pediatrics and Medicine, University of Toronto and Executive Director, Hemoglobal

and special invited guests:

Dr. Michèle Brill-Edwards formerly Health Canada’s senior physician responsible for drug approvals, University of Ottawa
Dr. Barbara Mintzes Therapeutics Initiative, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Department, University of British Columbia
Prof. Arthur Schafer Director, Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of Manitoba
Dr. Hal Weinberg Director, Office of Research Ethics, Simon Fraser University

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2006
6:30–8:30 pm

What has come to be known as the Olivieri Case has received international attention since 1998, largely because it vividly illustrated fundamental problems of public safety in medical research.

The case focused on, in particular, the responsibilities of academic institutions to protect clinical trial participants and to prevent attempts at suppression of publication by sponsors of research. Some university administrations, medical journals, patient organizations, and individual scientists are viewed as having been ‘captured’ by the pharmaceutical industry.

Is industry funding the only avenue to fund expensive clinical research trials? What are the possible mechanisms to protect research subjects in an era of corporate science?

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Guest Speaker

Nancy Olivieri, MD, FRCPC, Professor, Pediatrics and Medicine, University of Toronto and Executive Director, Hemoglobal

Dr. Nancy Olivieri is best known for her research in the field of thalassemia — a genetic blood disease — and her work on the development of safe treatment for thalassemia patients in the developing world.

Dr. Olivieri’s legal struggles — and those of her closest colleagues — with a drug company and with the administrations of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto have provoked an ongoing public controversy between those who oppose, and those who support, the increasing commercialization of research and of medical care.

As a result of her research and experiences, Dr. Olivieri developed an interest in the conflicts-of-interest arising in industry-sponsored research — an issue that has only increased in prominence in the ten years since she was first threatened with a lawsuit because of her concerns about an experimental drug then used in clinical trials. Controversies similar to hers in research ethics have continued in Canada and abroad.

Convened by Dialogue Programs, Continuing Studies.