‘We don’t bite’, drug companies tell academics

Malcolm Skingle, a senior scientist with pharma giant GSK, has urged academics to shed preconceived ideas of partnerships with drug companies and work together on joint projects.

“The message I want to put out there is that the pharmaceutical industry is not as rigid as academics often think. We often hear that academics believe we are trying to stop them from publishing—and that is simply not true,” Skingle said in an interview with Research Fortnight.

He added that perceptions that industrial scientists are less keen to publish their research are not correct. “The impact factors for collaborative research [between academia and industry] are generally higher than for academics or industry alone,” he said.