Tobacco company Philip Morris has donated at least $3.5 million to Boston University since 1996, largely to support programs on the BU Medical Campus such as the Cancer Research Center, the BU Daily Free Press reported March 27.

Funded programs included research studies on cancer gene therapy and links between heart disease and nicotine.

"I'm not questioning the validity or objectivity of the research," said Michael Siegel, associate chair of the BU School of Public Health's social and behavioral sciences department. "The problem with this research is that by virtue of taking this money BU is basically allowing itself to be used as a pawn in the marketing scheme that the tobacco companies are playing."

"I can't see how any research that I have done plays into any marketing campaign," responded Cancer Research Center Director Douglas Faller. "I'm relatively willing to take research funds from anyone that will help me help people."

Allen Blum, director of the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, said schools should never take tobacco funding for studies on cigarettes. "Whether it's $3.5 million or $3.50 it's despicable for anyone who calls himself or herself a health professional to accept money from a cigarette manufacturer, much less the company with the largest market share by far," Blum said. "Justifying the acceptance of such funding by claiming it may lead to lifesaving discoveries is self-interested and delusional rationalization at its most feral."

Fifteen public health and medical schools have refused tobacco funding in recent years, including the University of Texas at Austin business school, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins, the University of North Carolina, and Ohio State University.