Tobacco companies have used their financial ties with nicotine gum and nicotine patch manufacturers to pressure these firms into weakening their marketing of the nicotine-replacement products, according to a UCSF study of tobacco industry documents.
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.
Such financial ties and conflicts of interest should be made public, researchers argue in the August 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, PhD, 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." Bero is senior author on the JAMA paper.
- from EurekaAlert
All documents used in the study are now online at UCSF's Legacy Foundation site: Legacy.library.ucsf.edu Documents can be accessed by typing in the "Bates number" cited in the references of the JAMA paper.
