"VCU staff members are researching data on nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into rivers and on the onset of lung disease for cigarette giant Philip Morris USA.

The researchers are doing consulting work under one of a half-dozen research services agreements Virginia Commonwealth University has with corporations, said Francis Macrina, the school's vice president for research. Those agreements allow companies to review any proposed publication of research in order to protect patent and intellectual property rights.

The New York Times published a story yesterday that described VCU's agreements with Philip Morris as "highly unusual" and "extremely restrictive."

But Virginia Tech, Duke University, Auburn University, Cornell University, New York City's Rockefeller University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook are among the many universities that give corporate funders similar rights.

The agreements often provide for the sponsors' confidentiality.

The standardized agreements at some schools, including the University of Texas' Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the University of Louisville, make no specific provision for publication while protecting sponsors' confidential information.

Macrina said VCU's basic research policy is that publication should not be restricted.

"None of this research is about safer cigarettes," Macrina said. "All of what we're about is research that promotes health . . . all of our agreements are for research that can be published without reservation or restriction."

He said the Philip Morris agreement included specific language saying it could not be construed as restricting publication.

Macrina said research services agreements such as the one signed in 2006 with Philip Morris differ from VCU's standard research agreements because they involve work for which the company is soliciting the research.

The standard agreements do not allow corporate review to protect patent rights, but are meant to protect VCU researchers seeking grants for their own research.

Generally, university research agreements that allow review or that guarantee to keep sponsors' information secret are reserved for narrowly focused research, such as testing products.

Often, that data belongs to the corporate funder -- although in Philip Morris's case, some belonged to a third party, Macrina said.

He said that was why the Philip Morris agreement includes a longer period of time for review than some of VCU's other contracts -- 120 days against the usual 90 days. The school has signed other agreements allowing for longer-than-90-day reviews, he said.

Philip Morris asked the school to look into runoff as part of its efforts to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus flowing into the James River watershed from its Park 500 tobacco processing plant in Chesterfield County, said spokesman Bill Phelps said.

Philip Morris has paid VCU $286,000 to fund research this year, including the runoff and lung disease projects, Macrina said. That's about 0.1 percent of the research grants the school expects to receive this year." (David Ress, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 23, 2008)

Staff writer John Reid Blackwell contributed to this report.