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Former U-M Medicine Dean omitted multimillion-dollar pharma ties in multiple publications, Daily investigation finds
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ver a decade marked by a pandemic and nationwide cuts to health care funding, Marschall S. Runge led Michigan Medicine in a historic triple-leadership position. He served as executive vice president of medical affairs and chief executive officer of Michigan Medicine starting in 2015. In 2016, he was appointed dean of the Medical School, serving in all three roles until 2025. The University of Michigan credits Runge with doubling philanthropic funding and leading the University to its greatest growth in research advancement. In addition to his administrative roles, Runge conducted research of his own, which was largely centered on cardiovascular topics. His University responsibilities made him one of the institution’s highest compensated faculty. In 2024, he was the second highest paid U-M employee with a salary surpassing $2.38 million. Runge was on another payroll, too. In 2013, Runge was elected to the board of directors at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, where he served until August 2024. Though Lilly is a known producer of at least one cardiovascular drug, it is unclear whether the research Runge conducted is directly affiliated with the drugs Lilly manufactures. Runge received at least $2 million from Lilly throughout his tenure as a board member according to Open Payments, a government database that discloses physicians’ external financial relationships. It isn’t uncommon for doctors to receive compensation from drug and medical device companies for consulting for them. But, an investigation conducted by The Michigan Daily found the payments Runge received from Lilly far exceeded the amounts most of his
peers at other hospitals accepted from similar companies, and that the level of outside compensation is not mirrored by Runge’s U-M leadership colleagues. The Daily also found that Runge omitted his financial ties to Lilly in at least 12 of his journal publications. Two of these nondisclosures appeared in ScienceDirect, which is owned by Elsevier. The Daily requested comment from Elsevier about whether the journal was aware of Runge’s conflicts of interest at the time of publication. In a Dec. 5, 2025 email response to The Daily, Elsevier Communications Director Rebecca Clear wrote the company upholds the highest standards of ethics in its publishing to protect the quality and integrity of research. “In accordance with our commitment, this case is currently under investigation, and we cannot disclose further information until the investigation is complete,” Clear wrote. In a Jan. 20 corrigendum to one of Runge’s articles, Elsevier noted Runge’s omission of his board of directors position at the time of the article’s original publication. “The authors regret omitting to include that Marschall S. Runge was a member of the Board of Directors of Eli Lilly at the time of this publication and apologize for any inconvenience that resulted,” the corrigendum read. Runge declined The Daily’s repeated requests for an interview. However, Runge provided a statement via Mary Masson, Michigan Medicine senior director of public relations, on Dec. 3, 2025. Runge stated that, during his time at the University, he adhered to all of its school-specific requirements. “I followed every aspect of the University of Michigan conflict of interest (COI) policy. This included receiving approval from the President and the Board of Regents to join the Lilly Board and providing annual updates on any issues that could pose a conflict,” Runge wrote. The Daily could not confirm whether Runge’s nondisclosures conflicted with University policies.
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‘What’s the loyalty?’ In an interview with The Daily, Dr. Eric Campbell, research director at the University of Colorado Anschutz Center for Bioethics and Humanities, said that, while external financial relationships with drug and medical device manufacturing
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companies aren’t necessarily abnormal, they may pose liabilities. “When you get to serve on these boards, you can make quite a bit of money,” Campbell said. “It could change the education. It could bias the research. And it also has the potential to leave the impression among the public, elected officials
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and even the employees that their leaders are essentially trading the reputation of the institution for their own personal benefit.” While Open Payments data show Runge received more than $2 million from Lilly from 2018 to 2024, The Daily was unable to recover compensation numbers prior to 2018. Each year, more than 95% of Runge’s received payments were categorized as “compensation for services other than consulting,” a category that includes speaking, training and participating in educational engagements unrelated to continuing medical education. Runge also received compensation from Lilly in the form of stocks. In 2024, Lilly reported that Runge owned thousands of combined shares and stock units in the company. Based on Lilly’s current share price, they’re valued at more than $17 million. An analysis by The Daily of the University Medical School’s executive and senior leadership found Runge’s colleagues at the University did not engage in similar financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies. An analysis by The Daily also found that Runge receives the second-highest external compensation among the deans of the top 20 medical schools ranked by research. In an interview with The Daily, Dr. Robert Steinbrook, Public Citizen Health Research Group director, said the allegiances of leaders who participate in external financial relationships may be called into question. “A dean speaks on behalf of the institution, represents the institution and the question arises: ‘What’s the loyalty?’” Steinbrook said. “Is the loyalty to the institution, or is the loyalty to the outside organization, whether it’s a pharmaceutical company or somebody else?” ‘Disclosures: None.’ The industry standard for researchers who have financial Daniel Johnson/DAILY ties is simple: disclose competing
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interests. Professionals far and wide caution authors of research publications to err on the side of disclosure, with top research institutions and journals maintaining this sentiment. For conflict of interest disclosure policies, many peerreviewed journals follow the standards outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. In a page dedicated to disclosure best practices, ICMJE posits that, while external relationships do not always indicate problematic influence on paper, perceptions of conflict may erode trust in science. “Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on how transparently an author’s relationships and activities, directly or topically related to a work, are handled during the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of scientific work,” the ICMJE page reads. At least three of the journals in which Runge has been published explicitly utilize the ICMJE’s guidelines in their own conflict of interest disclosure policies. The University has long stood as a pioneer of medical research and innovation, ranking 12th in global research reputation according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings. For U-M employees, the standards for disclosures are clearly defined by the Office of Research Ethics and Compliance: any actual or potential conflicts of interest must be reviewed, eliminated or managed. Runge sat on Lilly’s board of directors for 11 years, advising its Ethics and Compliance and Science and Technology subcommittees. In that period, he authored 23 journal publications. In 12 of those papers, his financial ties to Lilly were omitted. Beginning in 2022, Runge began uniformly disclosing his ties to Lilly.
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