Off the Shelf: Patricia M. Tereskerz

Patricia M. Tereskerz, associate professor in the School of Medicine, "Riding the Green Wave: Financial Conflicts of Interest in Industry Sponsored Clinical Research: A Law and Policy Analysis." University Publishing Group.

There is no place where the collapse of the wall between academia and industry is more notable than in the area of biomedical research. Because industry plays such a prominent role in funding research, and has the potential to greatly impact research integrity, the financial conflicts of interest that are associated with industry are the focus of this book.

Private industry funding for biomedical research has outpaced that from public sources — most clinical studies, for example, that involve bringing new drugs from the bench to the bedside are financed by pharmaceutical companies. Tereskerz argues that the regulatory and legal frameworks that exist to manage conflicts of interest in clinical research are inadequate.

"In researching the legal cases for this book," Tereskerz said, "it was disturbing to learn the facts of many of the lawsuits in which research subjects unwittingly put their lives on the line to test new therapies, were irreparably harmed and were not informed about the financial conflicts the researchers had prior to entering the studies. In part, I wrote the book to shed light on a serious issue which has not been as transparent to the public as it should be."

"Riding the Green Wave" will assist clinical investigators, members of institutional review boards, health administrators and attorneys practicing in this area.

Tereskerz, who chairs the University of Virginia's Conflicts of Interest Committee, is director of the Program in Ethics & Policy in Healthcare, housed in the School of Medicine's Center for Biomedical Ethics & Humanities. She is an attorney and an epidemiologist who received her undergraduate economics and law degrees, master's and Ph.D. from U.Va..


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