Kooperative Arzneimittelforschung als Forschungsrisiko?

Collaborations between universities and pharmaceutical companies are particularly common in application-related pharmaceutical research. Two structurally opposing maxims often compete here: the commercialization-oriented protection of business and trade secrets on the one hand and the general availability of scientific knowledge on the other. Two decisions by the specialist senate of the Federal Administrative Court in January 2024 once again illustrate the major challenges faced by state universities in balancing these competing interests. Applied science that turns research data into trade and business secrets of a university's cooperation partner can jeopardize the integrity and functional conditions of free science. The following are among the central requirements that must be ensured here: The freedom of research and teaching (Art. 5 para. 3 sentence 1 GG) must be ensured without restriction and must not be undermined by contractual obligations that enable cooperation partners to exert an extraneous influence on research results or favor results-oriented research activities. The confidentiality of joint research must not be structured in such a way that control structures are undermined, which in science are primarily based on verifiability and an open and critical dialogue. This control function is primarily entrusted to the respective scientific community according to scientific criteria. This requires a minimum level of publicity and is opposed to collaborations that are structurally designed not to publish research results.