In contrast to the long and successful history of academic/industry relationships in disciplines such as the physical sciences and engineering, relationships focused on the life sciences are a more recent phenomenon dating to the early 1980's. While equally promising in terms of providing advantages to industry and academia as the interactions in the physical sciences and engineering, relationships in the life sciences pose a unique set of issues and considerations. In part this is due to the complexity of the relationships, which often involve broad and open-ended areas of research; however, the central issue concerns the fact that these relationships often involve human subjects research and have the potential to affect the medical care of the public. The purpose of this report is to provide a brief analysis of the issues surrounding academic-industry collaborations in the life sciences sector and discuss the implications in terms of structuring appropriate relationships and contracts defining those relationships.
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