Allow me to get straight to the point. I strongly believe that the pharmaceutical industry shouldn't sponsor medical education. The pharmaceutical industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Whenever big money teams up with celebrity lecturers, medical education suffers. The pharmaceutical industry currently funds the majority of psychiatric research done in universities.
University lecturers compete with each other for the largest corporate sponsors.
As a result, the pharmaceutical industry now dictates what research and continuing education is offered to psychiatrists. Many psychiatrists traditionally gave community lectures free of charge as a public service. Unfortunately, ever since pharmaceutical companies started to financially sponsor these seminars, many psychiatrists now refuse to do these lectures unless paid. The pharmaceutical industry has thrown so much money at continuing medical education that it has destroyed the traditional medical practice of unpaid community lectures. You will have to arrive at your own decision as to the ethics of this.