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To the Editor: In their article about financial ties between pharmaceutical and tobacco companies, Mr Shamasunder and Dr Bero¹ cite a case from the early 1990s regarding Philip Morris and the transdermal nicotine patch Habitrol, which was then marketed in the United States by CIBA-Geigy Corporation. CIBA Limited merged with Sandoz AG in 1996 to form Novartis AG. We wish to clear the record on marketing practices and links with the tobacco industry at Novartis.

The authors refer to a case that they state shows CIBA's pharmaceuticals division being pressured by the CIBA agribusiness division, which in turn had been influenced by Philip Morris, to limit the scope of CIBA's nicotine cessation patch advertising campaign. The authors fail to mention that this incident occurred before the formation of Novartis in December 1996.

In 2000, Novartis divested its agribusiness interests and is now purely a health care company. Its mission statement . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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RELATED ARTICLE

Financial Ties and Conflicts of Interest Between Pharmaceutical and Tobacco Companies
Bhavna Shamasunder and Lisa Bero
JAMA. 2002;288(6):738-744.
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