Merck pays Penn bioethicists to teach Chinese about bribery and corruption

A faculty member from the University of Pennsylvania Center for Neuroscience and Society is going to China to teach a 10-day bioethics course as part of its "plan to build ties with industry in China."  According to Pharmalot the course will review "hot-button issues" such as clinical trials and corruption.
At the bargain price of only $9,200 per student (estimated), the course obviously needs to be funded by the pharmaceutical industry. As Joe Powers explains:

"Yes, we received grants from Merck and Sanofi to develop a bioethics program in China… We started a consortium… Each company is contributing seed money to establish a program and the University of Pennsylvania has committed funding, along with a large medical school in China… I have no problem accepting industry funds... We have a conflict of interest steering committee here at Penn to make sure everything is ethical."