Tobacco giant accused of ‘manipulating science’ to attract non-smokers

Tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris International has been accused of “manipulating science for profit” by funding research and lobbying with scientists.

Campaigners say leaked PMI documents and its Japanese subsidiary also announced plans to target politicians, doctors and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This is part of the multinational’s marketing strategy to attract non-smokers to its heated tobacco product, IQOS.

Japan is a launch market for IQOS, and Stop tobacco organizations and products (Stop), a tobacco industry watchdog, said it suspected PMI would apply the blueprint elsewhere.

a fatherper of researchers of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath said Philip Morris Japan (PMJ) funded a Kyoto University study on smoking cessation through an external research organization.

The researchers said they could find no public evidence of PMJ’s involvement, although a PMI spokesperson said his involvement had been attributed when the results were presented at a scientific conference in Greece in 2021.

PMJ paid around £20,000 a month to FTI-Innovations, a life sciences consultancy run by a professor at the University of Tokyo, for tasks such as promoting PMI’s science and products at academic events. In an internal email, a PMJ employee claimed they had been told to “keep it secret.”

The article, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is based on 24 leaked company documents, dating from the period between 2012 and 2020.

“These activities resemble known strategies to influence the behavior, publication and reach of science and to conceal scientific activities,” the researchers said.

Dr Sophie Braznell, one of the authors, said: “The manipulation of science for profit harms us all, especially policymakers and consumers trying to make potentially life-changing decisions. It delays and undermines public health policy, while encouraging the widespread use of harmful products.”

Braznell said the leaked documents were undermined claims from PMI to conduct “transparent science,” and called for reforms to the financing and governance of tobacco research “to protect science from vested corporate interests.”

In a separate report on the company’s marketing activities, also based on leaked documents, Stop said PMJ appeared to lobby for allowing IQOS in places where smoking was prohibited.

Groups including medical and hospitality companies and the Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency were all pushed for approvals, “which, if secured, could give the impression of organic, widespread adoption of IQOS,” Stop said.

The push for a presence at the Tokyo Olympics “reflects a well-known industry tactic of advertising addictive, harmful tobacco products at sporting events – associating these products with health, misleading consumers and targeting children and young people.”

Jorge Alday, CEO of Stop, said the findings contradicted PMI’s statements, which suggested IQOS was only aimed at adult smokers.

“PMI’s intentions with IQOS appear to go far beyond what they have stated,” he said. “This revelation adds weight to mounting evidence questioning the credibility of PMI’s claims about their intentions and their products.

“Disturbingly, it points to a broader pattern of deceptive tactics that may be laying the groundwork for a new chapter in the tobacco epidemic,” he said.

A spokesperson for PMI said: “This is yet another misleading story from an organization more interested in criticizing our company than helping to reduce the harm of cigarettes.

“Like any highly regulated, multinational company, PMI regularly seeks to share our views on issues that affect our consumers, our business and our communities. This kind of engagement is not only perfectly legal and appropriate, it is also essential to the kind of inclusive policymaking that will lead to better outcomes for the people affected by those policies.”