Tobacco giant Philip Morris pressured at least two pharmaceutical manufacturers to water down antismoking messages in marketing campaigns for nicotine chewing gum and nicotine patches. This is one of the findings of research published this week in .
Internal documents show that drug company marketing strategies for nicotine replacement therapies were dropped or modified after sustained pressure from the tobacco industry.
At the time of two case studies, which date from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, tobacco companies were buying agricultural chemicals from corporations that also produced pharmaceutical products. The documents show that Philip Morris used that purchasing power to influence pharmaceutical company marketing.
In the first case study, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company that made Nicorette products (including nicotine gum and patches) withdrew an antismoking newsletter, vetoed antismoking messages in its advertising, and stopped funding antismoking organisations, after complaints from the tobacco industry. Dow's actions won praise from a Philip Morris official, who observed in 1984 that “Dow is committed to avoid contributing to the anti-cigarette efforts . . . ”
A second example involved CIBA-Geigy, a company that launched a big-selling nicotine patch in the early 1990s and was a long term supplier of pesticides to the tobacco industry. After criticism, CIBA-Geigy dropped a “smokebusters” publicity campaign and agreed internally to new “ground rules,” which banned antismoking themes in their marketing.
Acknowledging that the documents are now dated, authors Bhavna Shamasunder and Lisa Bero from the University of California in San Francisco concluded that “physicians and other health care professionals should question pharmaceutical companies about bowing to pressure from the tobacco industry.”
A spokesperson for Novartis, which later took over CIBA-Geigy, said the company had since divested ownership of all agribusiness interests and now focused only on health care.
A spokesperson for Dow said the company no longer sells Nicorette products but continues to sell to tobacco companies a minimal amount of a chemical normally used it agriculture.
Philip Morris responded by saying the old documents do not reflect the company's position today, which accepts the dangers of smoking and the health benefits of quitting.
Professor Simon Chapman, editor of the BMJ's specialist journal Tobacco Control, said: “Many in public health have observed that [pharmaceutical companies] are strangely reticent in adding their weight to prevention efforts and are shy about running hard-hitting advertisements that are known to work best.” (See p 395.)
PHILIP MORRIS CRITICISED DOW'S 1983 ADVERTISEMENT (ABOVE) FOR NICORETTE