Another US university has been found in bed with big tobacco, this time on the down-low. The New York Times reported today that Virginia Commonwealth University entered into a contract with Philip Morris in 2006 that severely restricts researchers' ability to disseminate findings from studies funded by the tobacco company.

Tobacco funding in academic research is a contentious issue, with the debate primarily centered around the issue of transparency. To date, numerous institutions have banned tobacco money from their grants and endowments.

The contract between Philip Morris and VCU, which prevents researchers from publishing their results, or even talking about their results, without permission from the company, breaches the university's own rules. Few professors at the university know about the contract, The Times reports. The current amount of grants was not revealed but the paper reported that last year the company gave more than $1 million in grants to the university.

"University administrators who are desperate for money will basically do anything they have to for money," Stanton Glantz, University of California researcher and anti-tobacco funding advocate, told the paper. Last year, the UC Board of Regents voted down a ban on tobacco funding.