The commercialization of the biomedical sciences: (mis)understanding bias

The growing commercialization of scientific research has raised important concerns about industry bias. According to some evidence, so-called industry bias can affect the integrity of the science as well as the direction of the research agenda. I argue that conceptualizing industry’s influence in sc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History and philosophy of the life sciences 2019-09, Vol.41 (3), p.34-34, Article 34
Main Author: de Melo-Martín, Inmaculada
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Biomedical Research - economics
Biomedical Research - instrumentation
Commercialization
Commodification
Education
Funding
History of medicine and histology
History of Science
Integrity
Life Sciences
Original Paper
Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology
Philosophy of Science
Technology Transfer
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Summary:The growing commercialization of scientific research has raised important concerns about industry bias. According to some evidence, so-called industry bias can affect the integrity of the science as well as the direction of the research agenda. I argue that conceptualizing industry’s influence in scientific research in terms of bias is unhelpful. Insofar as industry sponsorship negatively affects the integrity of the research, it does so through biasing mechanisms that can affect any research independently of the source of funding. Talk about industry bias thus offers no insight into the particular epistemic shortcomings at stake. If the concern is with the negative effects that industry funding can have on the research agenda, conceptualizing this influence as bias obscures the ways in which such impact is problematic and limits our ability to offer solutions that can successfully address the concerns raised by the growing role of private funding in science.
ISSN:0391-9714
1742-6316
DOI:10.1007/s40656-019-0274-x