[Intl-tobacco] Germany: DKFZ rejects any research funding from tobacco industry

[Robert Weissman]

      Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=3D33487#

<>DKFZ rejects any research funding from tobacco industry, Germany12 Nov
2005

The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum,
DKFZ) is the first research institute in Germany to pass an ethical code
on the non-acceptance of tobacco industry funds for cancer research. The
DKFZ Management Board and Scientific Council have unanimously decided
that the Center and its staff members reject any financial support from
the tobacco industry for research funding, expert fees, lecture fees,
travel expenses, scientific and other awards. Furthermore, participation
in events organized by the tobacco industry or third parties that are
substantially sponsored by the tobacco industry are likewise rejected.

This decision of Germany's largest health research center is coupled
with the scientists' wish that other research centers and health
institutes may follow this example. The tobacco industry can never be a
partner of health research, because it is the only industry that
produces, sells and advertises products which, if used as intended,
cause addiction, disease and premature death to a large part of their
consumers. Each year, 100,000 people die from the consequences of
tobacco consumption in Germany alone. These are more deaths than those
caused by alcohol, illegal drugs, road accidents, AIDS, homicides and
suicides taken together.

The task of the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg (German
Cancer Research Center, DKFZ) is to systematically investigate the
mechanisms of cancer development and to identify cancer risk factors.
The results of this basic research are expected to lead to new
approaches in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The
Center is financed to 90 percent by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research and to 10 percent by the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg. It is
a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers
(Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren e.V.).

*DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM*
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280,
69120 Heidelberg,
Germany
http://www.dkfz.de

About the *DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM*

The Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) Heidelberg was founded as a
non-profit organization and supraregional research center by the Land
(state) Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1964. It was constituted as a foundation
of public law. Since 1975, it has been a Gro=DFforschungseinrichtung
(National Research Center). It is mainly funded by the
Bundesforschungsministerium (Federal Ministry for Research and
Technology) (90 %) and by the Ministerium fuer Forschung und
Wissenschaft (Ministry for Research and Sciences) of the Land
Baden-Wuerttemberg (10 %). Additional funding is obtained by other
public and private sources e.g. the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(German Science Association), special projects of the European Union
(EU), of Federal and State ministries as well as cooperations with the
industry and also private donations to the foundation. In accordance
with its Statutes and Articles, it is the task of the Center to engage
in cancer research. "Cancer research", a term which every discipline
defines quite differently. In a center with a multi-disciplinary
structure, the discussion about the research program is a continuous
balancing process.