Previously, such research had been considered public property. Any patents that emerged typically were held by government. Today, however, universities are quick to license patent rights to companies for profit-making. These same companies, meanwhile, award grants to university entomologists and geneticists to conduct research on future products. Often, critics say, it doesn't take a great deal of money to entice a university department or scientist over to the corporate side, particularly in this time of state and federal funding cuts.
Corporate money can be the tail that wags the dog.
Tess Hooks, a sociologist at the University of Western Ontario whose graduate work at Cornell dealt with scientific ethics, reviewed the agreement between Cornell and Monsanto. Computers in the university's dairy barn sent the raw data directly to Monsanto in St. Louis. According to Hooks, the company, rather than the university's principal research scientist, controlled and interpreted the data. Monsanto's efforts to get BGH approved in the United States were dogged by controversy. Current and former FDA employees accused the agency of overlooking important safety concerns in its review of the product and of committing ethics violations because several recently hired FDA officials had worked on BGH for Monsanto.