Putting a damper on pioneering in-vitro work
Published: February 8, 2005
Section: Local, page B9
Type of story: OPINION

© 2005- Landmark Communications Inc.
other opinionsBy Howard W. Jones Jr. It is terribly painful to me that, 24 years after the arrival of America's first in-vitro baby, a foundation that funds the reproductive medicine institute that my wife and I helped to establish is the defendant in a lawsuit by the very medical school that houses it.


No one likes litigation. It is expensive and time consuming and rarely results in satisfactory outcomes. Further, it should not be necessary in this case, because the issues that gave rise to the dispute should not be in dispute at all. Subsidizing the research capability of the Jones Institute must be someone's top priority.

That someone has been the Jones Institute Foundation. For 22 years, it has raised millions of unrestricted dollars to enhance the activities of the institute and, in the process, enable scientists to conduct groundbreaking research.

Because of the foundation, we have a headquarters on Colley Avenue. Because of the foundation, we have two endowed chairs. Because of the foundation, we secured loans to launch an essential marketing and a distance-learning program.

Indeed, because of private gifts, which augmented clinical fees, we were able to convert the concept of in-vitro fertilization into a reproducible clinical protocol. Grant money for research of this kind, such as what typically comes from the National Institutes of Health, was simply not available for this purpose.

When we needed dollars on hand to continue our work, we depended on the financial gifts of generous benefactors that were earmarked for that purpose. Without question, these extra funds improved the human condition and made possible the leadership that the Jones Institute has provided in its field.

Without them, the institute would have been simply a service organization, and therefore a follower, not a pioneer.

This does not mean we do not appreciate what Eastern Virginia Medical School has done for the Jones Institute. But the Jones Institute Foundation was, and continues to be, the source of investment for research and other activities, which the medical school has not been willing to supply.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that the members of the foundation board are wary of any perceived intent by EVMS to threaten their ability to raise those "extra dollars" through proceeds from the sale of patents?

Given what our research has meant for EVMS and Norfolk, not to mention tens of thousands of happy parents around the world, one would think that the medical school would do everything in its power to assure that the Jones Institute has adequate dollars for research.

Instead, it is quibbling over a sound decision by former EVMS President Edward Brickell, as esteemed an educator as our area has ever known, to modify a policy so that the Jones Foundation would be able to reap a share of the monetary rewards that result from research done within the Institute itself.

The $19 million in proceeds from the sale of the patent for the contraceptive Seasonale, now sitting in a bank rather than benefiting either the Institute or the Medical School, would not exist were it not for the Jones Institute.

Lastly, we are not the only complainants in this matter. EVMS has generated a disconnect with all its affiliated foundations that further reinforces the need for the Jones Foundation to act responsibly in the administration of these funds.

EVMS has damaged its credibility with our organization, and we understand our obligation to ensure that these dollars reach the appropriate scientists within the institute.

So, I plead with the EVMS board, and with the local and state governments that fund the medical school, to restore to us the scientific freedom that comes with a healthy foundation.

Don't hold us hostage to the whims of an administrator whose priorities may be elsewhere or to the vagaries of the grant process, where funds must be directed only to specific projects.

Cutting-edge research must be nimble and prepared to promptly pursue evolving scientific developments. In our case, the Jones Institute Foundation is exactly positioned to fulfill this critical function - one that EVMS management seems either unwilling or unable to perform.


* Howard W. Jones Jr., M.D., is professor emeritus at EVMS and co-founder of the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk.