Japan: Academics Secretly Funded by Philip Morris to Promote IQOS

A former employee revealed secret funding from Philip Morris International (PMI) and its subsidiary Philip Morris Japan (PMJ) to academics and consultants with ties to prestigious Japanese universities to conduct studies and other work on heated tobacco, according to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).[1].

Shiro Konuma, a prominent physician and public health advisor, joined Philip Morris’ Japan branch in April 2019 as its director of medical and scientific affairs. Konuma was drawn to the company’s vision of a “smoke-free world”—as a physician and a smoker himself. But just weeks into his new role, Konuma was informed by a colleague that the tobacco company was secretly funding millions of companies tied to two Japanese universities in Kyoto. Konuma’s hiring and the secret funding were both designed to bolster scientific support for the heated tobacco product IQOS.

Providing scientific support for the IQOS heated tobacco device

Leaked documents published by the University College San Francisco (UCSF) Truth Tobacco Documents Library have shown that PMJ secretly funded a tobacco study conducted by academics at Kyoto University. This investment in the scientific community is part of a larger marketing campaign for the IQOS device in Japan.[2]. The documents released by the UCSF library were provided by a former PMJ employee who blew the whistle, Shiro Konuma. Konuma's profile and position made him a prime target for the manufacturer, which had access to the academic and medical worlds as well as to executives. The documents provided by Konuma show that Philip Morris used a healthcare provider, CMIC Holdings, to fund research conducted at Kyoto University. The research focused on smoking cessation products. In October 2017, CMIC agreed to pay Kyoto University 49.5 million yen (280,000 euros) for a study on "smoking cessation aids."

Other documents show that in May 2018, CMIC sent Philip Morris Japan a cost estimate for the work it had done. The estimate included 49.5 million yen for “planning and supporting epidemiological research,” exactly the same amount that was paid to Kyoto University. According to Konuma, using CMIC as an intermediary meant that the university’s ethics committee was unaware that a tobacco company was funding the research when it gave the go-ahead. Contracts signed between CMIC and Kyoto University do not mention Philip Morris. In fact, the study does not appear to have been free of any Philip Morris input. Emails seen by TBIJ show that Philip Morris was in direct contact with the Kyoto academics. In one, a Philip Morris employee spoke directly to a professor about the details of the study. Kyoto University said Philip Morris presented the study results at a conference, acknowledging the contribution of a university professor. The documents show that the study was commissioned and paid for, but it has not yet been published.

Publish studies in favor of heated tobacco to influence decision-makers

In addition to funding academics, PMJ also contracted with a life sciences consulting firm (FTI-I), led by a University of Tokyo professor, Hiromichi Kimura, to recruit a network of experts, described in the documents as “opinion leaders,” to influence public health policy and impose Philip Morris’s “harm reduction” rhetoric. Kimura’s services to Philip Morris were part of the company’s strategic plan to secure lower tax rates for IQOS in Japan. The plan was to install a Philip Morris employee as a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo in Professor Kimura’s department, and then publish research showing how heated tobacco products could benefit the Japanese economy. The research, which bears the stamp of a leading university, would then be presented to the Japanese Finance Ministry as part of negotiations over tax rates for the heated tobacco device.

Another key message to politicians was that IQOS heated tobacco should be exempt from Japan’s upcoming indoor smoking ban, which is set to go into effect in April 2020. In October 2018 – as the rules for the ban were being drafted – Philip Morris employees met with a health ministry official and presented him with documents. The documents cited research by Philip Morris scientists, claiming that IQOS had only a limited impact on indoor air quality and that passive exposure to IQOS caused “no adverse effects.” When Japan’s smoking ban went into effect in 2020, the health ministry made exceptions for the use of heated tobacco products indoors. Restaurants and bars were allowed heated smoking rooms, where customers could use the IQOS device.

Suspicious Financial Deal Between Philip Morris and FTI-I

When Konuma found out about the deal with FTI-I, he became suspicious, especially since Professor Kimura had asked him to keep the FTI-I deal secret. Konuma wrote to PMJ's senior management, expressing his concerns about the reputational risk to the company from the secrecy of the financing. Added to this was his belief that the FTI-I deal had not been subject to proper legal checks.

Another Philip Morris employee who left the company also spoke to investigative reporters. He asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. He told TBIJ that the payments to FTI-I were “substantial” and would be difficult to justify to outside investigators. Kimura did not disclose to the university that his company received the funding from Philip Morris. The University of Tokyo told TBIJ that the institute’s conflict of interest advisory board investigated after “becoming aware” of the matter in 2020, five years after Philip Morris began paying Kimura.

Konuma questioned whether the payments could violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a U.S. law that applies to publicly traded companies in the country. The law prohibits U.S. companies from using payments or rewards to influence foreign officials, including employees of state-funded foreign universities. Brian Frey, a former U.S. Justice Department prosecutor and partner at the law firm Alston & Bird, has studied the charges and said they present “the characteristics of a bribery scheme that may give rise to prosecution under the FCPA”.

After Konuma raised concerns about the payments to Professor Kimura, the "plan" implementation of the plan appears to have been canceled and the company scientist never took up his position. Konuma, for his part, was quickly fired after his alerts to PMJ management.

AE

[1] Fin Johnston, Science for sale: Philip Morris's web of payments to fund tobacco research, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, published July 1, 2024, accessed July 8, 2024

[2] Generation without tobacco, Heated tobacco: an internal document reveals Philip Morris' offensive in Japan, published July 1, 2024, accessed July 8, 2024