Tobacco companies in the 1980s and '90s put pressure on drug companies to limit their marketing of nicotine gum and skin patches that help people quit smoking, according to a new study of tobacco industry documents.

The study, published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, describes how Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims and other cigarettes, exerted financial leverage over the pharmaceutical divisions of giant chemical companies by threatening to cut off purchases from the companies' agricultural divisions.

The drug companies then tailored their marketing to Philip Morris' specifications, the study says, aiming them at smokers who had already decided to quit rather than making broader appeals based on the health benefits of quitting.

What might otherwise be considered merely hardball business tactics was unethical in this case because the tobacco companies knew the health risks of smoking, said Dr. Lisa Bero, a professor of clinical pharmacy and health policy at the University of California at San Francisco and the senior author of the study.

The makers of the quit-smoking aids say their marketing is now free of tobacco industry influence.

Philip Morris says the incidents described in the paper are ancient history. "The actions that are described in the study do not reflect the actions we are taking on issues like this today," said Brendan McCormick, a spokesman.

Bero and colleague Bhavna Shamasunder examined internal tobacco industry documents released in 1998 as part of the states' lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

According to memos, when Merrell Dow, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, introduced Nicorette nicotine gum in 1980, executives at Philip Morris wanted Dow to limit marketing to only people who needed to quit for health reasons. Dow canceled an anti-smoking newsletter to doctors after one issue.

Philip Morris executives were not satisfied and on May 7, 1984, canceled purchases of Dow chemicals that help moisten tobacco, an $8 million-a-year account.

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"Dow was informed that the recent spate of activity can only be interpreted as a conscious corporate decision that Nicorette is more important than the Philip Morris (and other tobacco) business," said an internal Philip Morris memo.

Philip Morris soon resumed purchases. According to notes of a meeting in December 1984, David Sharrock, president of Merrell Dow, assured Philip Morris executives that he was screening advertising and education materials to eliminate anti-tobacco statements.

The episode was first reported in 1998 and 1999 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, whose articles were based on many of the same documents studied by the medical researchers.

The new study expands on those earlier reports, showing that Philip Morris' tactics continued into the early 1990s, when the first nicotine skin patches were approved.

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