Ep 15: How do commercial conflicts of interest threaten science?

About this episode

Welcome to season two of Deadly Industry: Challenging Big Tobacco, the podcast where we explore the tactics used by the tobacco industry as it pursues profit over health. In the penultimate episode of season two, Dr Tess Legg and Dr Alice Fabbri chat with Louis about conflicts of interest in science. They break down how commercial funding of researchers can bias scientific research, why commercial actors seek to influence science and how to protect scientific processes and outputs from manipulation by implementing policies, delivering training and changing how science is funded. Dr Alice Fabbri is a public health physician whose work focuses on conflicts of interest and commercial influences on health. Alice's work has contributed to the definition and conceptualisation of the Commercial Determinants of Health and to developing educational interventions on conflicts of interest and corporate influence on science. Dr Tess Legg is a research associate in the Tobacco Control Research Group who specialises on understanding how and why corporate actors seek to influence science. Tess’s work explores ways to ensure science works for the public good and contributes to the emerging f