It is through the above headline that the outgoing editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) bid her farewell to one of the most prestigious medical journals in the United States and around the world. It was sort of reminiscent of the Eisenhower farewell ,warning us of the military-industrial complex.

The editorial by Dr. Marcia Angell said, "large-scale breaching of the boundaries between academic and for-profit industry" is taking place. She called for renewed efforts to prohibit academic researchers from investing in companies whose drugs they research. She also called for the removal of drug company representatives from teaching hospitals, e.g., even paying for pizza parties for future docs.

The newly-appointed editor of the NEJM, a Harvard professor, has active relations with over nine major drug companies. In the New York Times article announcing his appointment, the writer asked a member of the search committee, a corporate official from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (of the Johnson & Johnson family) if they asked the applicant about his drug ties. The answer was no.

In a related New York Times article, leading Harvard administrators admitted to weakening regulations of academics working on drug research and development. They clearly want those top drug dollars coming to Harvard.

International corporate drug barons are fighting against people protesting high drug prices around the world. In the other G-7 capitalist countries these drug monopolies are pressuring government to gain an open market to sell their drugs. Presently, they have to negotiate with the governments for a price on drugs that is affordable to those using those national health insurance (service) systems.

In the United States there is a completely open market for drug companies to charge what they want. Faced with the imminent passage of a Medicare drug benefit bill, they are pressing for the weakest version. Their coffers are filled with billions of pay-off dollars. They use their profits for wheeling and dealing and not for what they claim, i.e., people-oriented research and development.

For while drug companies are claiming to be spending their profits for research they go hat-in-hand to the federal government for public moneys to conduct this same research.

Drug lobbyists are active in every state legislature and, of course are trying to decide the fate of the next U.S. Congress. They want to repeat their successes of the 1994 Gingrich Congress where the right wing won control of the House and Senate. They are also seeking to control the hearts and minds of the next generation of health professionals through our own journals and organizations.

The struggles of health professionals, workers and all other activists within the American Public Health Association, American Medical Association and other professional associations as well as within academic and clinical journals is extremely important. It is from those organizations and journals that important allies will be gained for a national health service in our nation’s future.