Philip Morris cuts research

Philip Morris USA, a major tobacco company, decided to stop funding external research projects at a variety of universities, including many projects in the University of California said by UC officials to be receiving relatively small sums.

Philip Morris USA made the decision after a few months of brewing controversy surrounding the University of California’s use of funding from tobacco companies and the use of animals in the projects receiving the money.

The UC Board of Regents debated a ban on receiving money from tobacco companies, but ultimately decided in September against the proposal and instead adopted RE-89, a new policy regarding research proposals.

The new policy changed the process for reviewing and accepting proposals that included funding from tobacco companies by giving the vice chancellors of research the power to look over the applications, said Jennifer Ward, a spokeswoman for the University of California Office of the President.

Phil Hampton, a UCLA spokesman, said in the last fiscal year, the tobacco industry spent about $16 million helping to fund 23 research projects at the University of California.

“It’s a small percentage of the total research funding,” Hampton said, and added only about $7.6 million of UCLA’s total research funding of more than $913 million came from tobacco companies such as Philip Morris USA.

Ward also said the money received from the tobacco industry is insignificant.

“The University of California receives billions of dollars,” she said. “It’s a drop in the bucket.”

Researchers currently working on grants funded by Philip Morris USA will be able to continue their research, but will be forced to pursue other options once the funding runs out, Ward said.

Some research projects that received funding from Philip Morris USA have raised concern with animal rights groups. According to the Daily Bruin archives, Edythe London, a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences, and molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, was targeted twice in the last four months by the Animal Liberation Front for using primates in her research on nicotine addiction.

Lisette Molina, copresident of Bruins for Animals, said she could not make a statement on behalf of the group about the UC’s use of funds from Philip Morris USA because of the controversial nature of the topic, but feels the use of primates in nicotine research is unnecessary,

“The UCLA community … should have emphasized observational studies on human beings instead of working with primates and creating an artificial addiction,” she said.

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