The exclusive licensing policy gives special rights to corporate sponsors, giving them the option of marketing the products of the research for which they pay. Collaboration also generally gives patenting rights to the collaborators. Federal patent policy also makes possible the heavy influence of corporations. But the right to patent any discoveries made with Federal money lies with the grantees. Large amounts of Federal money fund most of the lab s activities without requiring anything in return, and a small amount of drug company funding extracts from that built-up lab exclusive rights to the patents and drugs produced in it.
Collaboration also gives the drug companies a way to market largely federally funded labs.
It is impossible to determine the exact extent to which this occurs, because the University does not release a precise breakdown of grants, but the existence of collaborative papers by different groups, and the spread of pharmaceutical money to HMS and HSPH suggests that a significant number of labs are involved in these interactions. The anti-corporate movement, especially here at Harvard, has largely allowed the pharmaceutical corporations to pass beneath its radar. The movement here has focused on sweatshops and a living wage for Harvard workers both admirable goals but it should not ignore Big Pharma anymore. The anti-corporate movement, fundamentally, opposes corporations that claim to transcend morality in the pursuit of profit. The pharmaceutical industry, more than any other industry, claims the right to amorality.