Table 2.

 Academic director benefits to companies and resulting potential conflicts of interest

Academic roles*	Qualifications for company directorship*	Potential conflicts of interest
Researchers:
Professor of neurology	Widely recognized as a leader across many dimensions of medical research and drug development, and this expertise is important to our board as we continue to advance our clinical development pipeline and initiate additional clinical trials	Company goal of developing products to generate revenue versus academic research goal of understanding human physiology and developing effective treatments for disease states regardless of profit
Professor of medicine, member of hospital conflict of interest committee	Experience in the practice of medicine and clinical trials provides the board and management with the perspectives of physicians who use the company’s products and with insight into the clinical trial process. Service on the academic institution’s conflict of interest committee provides the company with important insights on the ethics of healthcare	Potential for bias in decisions of director in their role on the conflict of interest committee regarding clinical trials or research related to the company or their competitors
Clinicians:
Professor of orthopedic surgery	Unique perspective of a user of medical instrumentation, as a surgeon, as well as hospital managerial experience.	Academic goal of providing trainees with evidence-based, unbiased surgical training vs. company goal of increasing training of their specific products.
Professor of obstetrics and gynecology	Experience as a nationally known professor of obstetrics and gynecology as well as the director’s experience with performing scientific research and developing and implementing educational programs for physicians	Academic goal to provide cost-effective care vs. company goal of promoting company products
Professor of medicine and member of two medical journal editorial boards	Recognized healthcare thought leader. This expertise is vital in shaping our strategy to deliver innovative and expanded service offerings	Company goal of developing research results that support product sales versus journal editor role to promote evidence based, unbiased, research results
Administrative leaders:
Chair, department of medicine	Experience as a practicing physician, a scientist and a nationally recognized leader in academic medicine. Oversees a large research portfolio and an extensive research and education budget at the academic institution, giving the director a valuable perspective on drug discovery and development	Potential for director responsibility to increase company profits to bias decisions when setting departmental research and educational goals
Chief executive officer, academic health system	Extensive business, managerial, executive, and leadership experience in the healthcare industry, having served in numerous senior management positions, including as chief executive officer at a leading hospital and healthcare system	Potential for director’s fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and personal financial gain to bias decisions related to hiring and promotion of faculty as well as developing new clinical centers or services
Vice chancellor for research and chairman of pharmacy and therapeutics committee	The director’s medical background is extremely valuable as the company seeks to continue expanding its pipeline with promising products that offer advancement to patient care and are well positioned competitively	Potential for bias in decision on hospital formulary decisions related to company and competitor products. Potential for bias in setting research agenda of the academic institution
Trustees:
Health system trustee and chair of the investment committee	Experience in serving as a director of several companies, financial expertise, and service with other healthcare organizations	Fiduciary responsibility to company to increase profits may conflict with responsibility to hospital to manage investments
Medical school trustee	The director’s position as our chief executive officer and the director’s significant experience in the cancer research field and corporate strategy development, including executive leadership roles at global pharmaceutical companies, and experiences in commercializing potential drug candidates	Role as both director and chief executive officer of company may bias strategic decisions at medical school related to investments and educational priorities

*As noted in definitive proxy statements. Academic roles and qualifications paraphrased from company definitive proxy statements for anonymity of individual, academic institution, and company.