University of Virginia Library

Med School To Sponsor
'New Look At Drugs'

University medical students will
take a new look at the relationship
between physicians and the drug
industry tomorrow.

The second-year class of the
University's School of Medicine will
sponsor a debate between a
University medical professor and an
executive of a leading
pharmaceutical firm at 3 p.m. in
the medical school auditorium.

The overall theme of the session
is "The Physician and the Drug
Industry" with special emphasis on
drug advertising, drug testing and
the medical-pharmaceutical relationship
as a conflict of interest.

The debate will be based primarily
on prepared questions, with
limited time given to questions
from the floor.

The debaters will be William
O'Brien, associate professor of
preventive and internal medicine,
and Harold Upjohn of Kalamazoo,
Mich., vice president of Upjohn
Pharmaceuticals. Moderator will be
William B. Hunt Jr., associate
professor of internal medicine and
assistant dean for continuing education
at the medical center.

Mr. O'Brien has testified previously
before the United States
Senate in favor of strengthening
Food and Drug Administration
control of drugs. Last month he
suggested in an article for "Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists" that drug
testing be removed from the pharmaceutical
industry.

"The subject of the drug industry
and its relation to both the
physician and the public has recently
come under intense scrutiny,"
John Wasson of Eastern Long
Island, N.Y., second-year medical
student in charge of the program,
said.

"The issue is complex and we
feel that the first and best approach
should be a systematic examination
of specific problems relating to it."