A Purchased ‘Special Publication’ Provides the Tobacco Industry Evidence for Regulatory Approval of their Products
Lee JG, Soule EK. Evidence of potential tobacco industry influence in Tobacco Regulatory Science. Tobacco Control. Online First; http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056752
https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2021/08/12/tobaccocontrol-2021-056752
“May 2021 special issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior (AJHB) on JUUL consisted of 13 articles with 12 including authors who were employees of JUUL Labs; all articles reported at least one author with funding from the tobacco industry. The research reported in the issue was “designed to provide the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products with the information it needs and has requested to judge whether a product is appropriate for the protection of public health” per Drs Eric Auguston and Saul Shiffman. JUUL paid US$51 000 for the special open-access issue according to the New York Times.”
Note: Tobacco industry influence takes many forms and trying to legitimizing research having a clear conflict of interest is a strategy sometimes used to bolster regulatory approvals.
Stephen Hamann
