[Extramural research funds and penal law--status of legislation]

After decades of smooth functioning, the cooperation of physicians and hospitals with the industry (much desired from the side of the government in the interest of clinical research) has fallen in legal discredit due to increasingly frequent criminal inquires and proceedings for unduly privileges, corruption, and embezzlement. The discredit is so severe that the industry funding for clinical research is diverted abroad to an increasing extent. The legal elements of embezzlement assume the intentional violation of the entrusted funds against the interest of the customer. Undue privileges occur when an official requests an advantage in exchange for a service (or is promised one or takes one) in his or somebody else's interest. The elements of corruption are then given when the receiver of the undue privilege provides an illegal service or takes a discretionary decision under the influence of the gratuity. The tension between the prohibition of undue privileges (as regulated by the penal law) and the granting of extramural funds (as regulated by the administrative law in academic institutions) can be reduced through a high degree of transparency and the start of control possibilities--public announcement and authorization by the officials--as well as through exact documentation and observance of the principles of separation of interests and moderation. With the anti-corruption law of 1997, it is possible to charge of corruption also physicians employed in private institutions. In contrast, physicians in private practice are not considered in the above criminal facts. They can only be charged of misdemeanor, or called to respond to the professional board, on the basis of the law that regulates advertising for medicinal products (Heilmittelwerbegesetz).