Tobacco Giants Linked To Smoking-Cessation Products

Report: Industry Pressures Drug Makers

CHICAGO -- A study says drug companies toned down marketing of smoking-cessation products because of tobacco industry pressure.

The report is based on documents involved in the 1998 national tobacco settlement. It concerns sales of such things as nicotine-based gum and a skin patch in the 1980s and 1990s.

The examination of financial ties and conflicts of interest revealed that the parent company of one tobacco manufacturer also owned a firm that made nicotine gum, so the company profited both from selling tobacco products and drugs to break the tobacco addiction.

The researchers don't know if the conflicts of interest they uncovered still exist, since neither tobacco nor pharmaceutical companies publicly disclose such ties.

One instance involved Philip Morris, which was a major producer of tobacco crop chemicals made by Dow Chemical. At the time, a Dow subsidiary made Nicorette, a tobacco-cessation gum. Philip Morris objected to the sales practices and suspended its chemical purchases. Dow changed its practices, and Philip Morris started buying again.

Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco, who conducted the study, argued that such financial ties and conflicts of interest should be made public. Their findings are published in the Aug. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This study shows how the tobacco industry has used its financial might to thwart public health," said Lisa Bero, UCSF professor of clinical pharmacy and health policy. "In today's business climate, the ethics of financial ties should be discussed more openly. We should ask if a company should be able to profit both from selling an addictive product and a drug to treat the addiction."

Additional Resources:

• Journal of the American Medical Association
• Philip Morris memos

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