In a first-year pharmacology class at Harvard Medical School, Matt Zerden grew wary as the professor promoted the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects.<\/p>\n
Mr. Zerden later discovered something by searching online that he began sharing with his classmates. The professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt really violated,\u201d\u009d Mr. Zerden, now a fourth-year student, recently recalled. \u201cHere we have 160 open minds trying to learn the basics in a protected space, and the information he was giving wasn\u2019t as pure as I think it should be.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Mr. Zerden\u2019s minor stir four years ago has lately grown into a full-blown movement by more than 200 Harvard Medical School students and sympathetic faculty, intent on exposing and curtailing the industry influence in their classrooms and laboratories, as well as in Harvard\u2019s 17 affiliated teaching hospitals and institutes.<\/p>\n