by Anonymous
Note: This article has not been updated since 2022. It was included in this year’s issue because of its relevance to the lives of all students.
Whether during info sessions for prospective students Quaker days, or NSO, Penn touts to its incoming undergraduates about the abundant research opportunities on and around campus. Penn receives over $966 million in research funding, and whether you are in the College, Engineering, Wharton, or Nursing, you can find research that pertains to your interest. In fairness, a lot of impressive and impactful research is done at Penn. However, from Big Pharma corrupting the medical school to carbon capture research funded by the fossil fuel industry, nefarious interests are rampant throughout research here at Penn, and it is important that incoming first-years are aware of these influences before they delve deeply into research.
The pharmaceutical industry has a major grasp on the way we treat patients in America. Despite the fact that actual technologies behind all drugs developed from 2010 to 2016 were discovered at the NIH or NIH-funded research institutions like Penn, pharmaceutical companies continue to insist that they are the true innovators, justifying price gouging, patent protections, and high executive pay. This misconception that pharmaceutical companies are innovative, good-faith actors trickles down and is exacerbated by their influence on medical schools and research institutions including the ones at Penn.
Across the world, pharmaceutical companies have funneled millions of dollars to medical schools. This has two major effects: individual professors and doctors are paid off and thus advocate for practices that increase profitability for Big Pharma, and impressionable medical students, graduate, and undergraduate students are convinced that pharmaceutical industry influence over research is and should be the norm. Over 40 Penn professors and doctors have given lectures funded by pharmaceutical companies. This number may be even higher as doctors and professors at universities are not required to be transparent about their funding.
This entails that medical research and healthcare as a whole both at Penn and at other hospitals and universities, is focused on treatments for symptoms of disease. Cures, and even more so prevention, are left by the wayside because they are less profitable. As a result, a lot of the funding for research is allocated inefficiently, meaning the research done at the medical school will most likely further the profits of a few pharmaceutical executives, and inefficiently address the most pressing diseases and illnesses today.
Another industry with a similar playbook to pharmaceuticals is the fossil fuel industry. At Penn, carbon capture is a common research topic in the Chemistry and Engineering Departments. Although carbon capture has its merits and could be potentially used to expedite the removal of excess carbon from the atmosphere, it is alarming that much of the funding towards carbon capture research is from the fossil fuel industry. This is because these oil and gas companies, who are often pledging to become carbon neutral, are betting on the success of carbon capture to offset their emissions, allowing them to continue polluting in the short term, preventing the complete transition to renewables, while committing irreversible damage to the environment. In addition, Penn is complicit in this, refusing to divest from the fossil fuel industry, and utilizing the same “carbon neutral by 2050” mantra of the oil and gas companies. With the influence of the fossil fuel industry on climate research at Penn and at universities across the globe, this certainly alters the focus of research away from improving renewables to finding ways to prolong and justify our reliance on fossil fuels. Penn professors who engage in carbon capture research, despite its potential, are still complicit in helping the fossil fuel industry prolong their existence and improve their image unless they are explicitly denouncing fossil fuels, promoting renewables, and ensuring their research is only used to end the dependence on fossil fuels, not further it.
Scientists and researchers around the world do some of the most important and valiant work, and Penn is one of the best places in the world to find cutting edge research in any field. However, the unfortunate truth is, the way that research is currently funded, a significant portion of research cannot be done if it is not profitable. This creates conflicts of interests and shifts the focus from what is best for society to what is best for certain industry executives and their shareholders. As an incoming undergraduate, it is important to be cognizant of where a PI’s (principal investigator) funding comes from, and what their overall intentions are with their research. Nearly a billion dollars of Penn’s operations are thrown at research, and real human lives are depending on this research, so it is imperative that we make rational and impartial decisions on which research is the most helpful and which is more so to line the pockets of a select few.
In addition to the general corruption of research funding at Penn in the past decade, Penn has long been supporting corrupt research of its faculty for monetary gain or acclaim. One specific case of extreme unethical research at the hands of Penn faculty was the Holmesburg Prison experiments which took place from 1951 to 1974. Over two decades, Albert Kligman, a dermatologist at Penn Medicine, experimented on the skin of prisoners at the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He left the skin of prisoners forever damaged from radioactive material, drugs, and chemicals like dioxin, which is an ingredient in agent orange. Many of the prisoners who participated in this study without their consent were Black or African-American prisoners. Evidence which is shown from many of his manuscripts detailing his findings/treatments on melanated skin. Kligman is most famous for his discovery of Retin-A or topical tretinoin, a well-known acne treatment and anti-aging product. His work is still highly regarded in the dermatology field, but at the cost of the lives and bodies of “subjects” that had no consent or voice in the studies they were in. Penn had long awarded lectureships or professorships under Kligman’s name, and only made an official statement denouncing Kligman’s actions in the fall of 2021.
Whether it’s the exploitation of marginalized populations or the influence of profit, Penn continues to fund unethical research and refuses to acknowledge its problematic history. If you intend to participate in research, we encourage you to read about Penn’s history in your specific field of interest and be on the lookout for any questionable practices before starting your academic career.
Penn Disorientation Guide 