BMJ 2001;322:1270 ( 26 May )
Jump to full article: British Medical Journal, 2001-05-25
Author: Mark Hunter Leeds
Intro: The decision by Nottingham University to accept a £3.8m ($5.3m) donation from British American Tobacco (BAT) has led directly to the loss of cancer research funding and prestigious research staff from the university.
The money, which is to be used to fund an international centre for corporate responsibility, has sparked a furore among antismoking campaigners and cancer researchers. . .
The Cancer Research Campaign has decided that £1.5m—which was to be raised through an appeal to help build new research facilities in Nottingham—will now be donated to Newcastle University instead. The decision follows a poll of the campaign's regional supporters in which over 90% said that, in the light of BAT's donation, they no longer felt comfortable raising funds for Nottingham.
The university has also lost a team of cancer researchers led by Professor David Thurston, who has resigned from his post as professor of experimental cancer chemotherapy and director of the Gene Targeted Drug Design Research Group. Professor Thurston has relocated his whole team to the London School of Pharmacy. It is understood that Nottingham's decision to accept the funding was a factor in his departure. . .
Students at the university have also protested at the decision to accept BAT's money.
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