SPECIAL COMMUNICATION Financial Ties and Conflicts of Interest Between Pharmaceutical and Tobacco Companies

FINANCIAL TIES BETWEEN COMPAniesproducingaddictive tobacco productsandcompaniesproducing drugs to treat or alleviate the addiction are a potential conflict of interest.Several typesof financial tiescanexist. For example, one company could be the sole supplier of a product that is needed by another company. Or, a company could be financially dependent on sales fromanothercompany.Corporatediversification also results in financial ties between companies. Corporate diversification leads to a network of holding companies, parent companies, and subsidiaries that are financially connected but operate seemingly independently. Diversification can contribute to financial stability, but it also allows corporate negotiations to occur with little public knowledge and can hide financial ties that are potential conflicts of interest. The diversification of the tobacco industry is well-documented. The tobacco industry has systematically acquired companies that manufacture unrelated consumer products such as cookies, macaroni and cheese, candy, and pharmaceuticals. The tobacco industry has used its financial ties to pressure a variety of industries to oppose tobacco control. The pharmaceutical industry also maintains diversified interests and is involved in the sale of multiple products such as chemicals, pesticides, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Thus, corporate diversification has resulted in financial ties between pharmaceutical companies that market nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) and the tobacco industry. We examined internal tobacco industry documents to investigate the historical relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the tobacco industry and the impact corporate financial ties have on the development and marketing of NRTs.