Philip Morris ejected from tuberculosis conference

The seventh South African TB conference, scheduled for 13-16 September, was nearly cancelled by its organiser following pressure from key participants, due to the indirect presence of Philip Morris International at the event. The exclusion of the tobacco industry, decided by the organisers, allowed the conference to go ahead.[1].

In early September, the World Health Organization (WHO) informed Willem Hanekom, the conference president, that it was withdrawing its delegate's participation. A few days later, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which contributes heavily to tuberculosis prevention projects, and the international organization Find, also indicated that they would not be attending the conference. This was because the main sponsor of the event, the Foundation for Professional Development (FDP), was receiving at least €114,000 in funding from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a front group for the tobacco company Philip Morris.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a Philip Morris front group

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World presents itself as an "independent non-profit organization committed to reducing death and disease caused by tobacco use." While the Foundation claims to want to "accelerate the end of tobacco use" through "independent" research, all of the organization's funding comes from Philip Morris International. As the NGO STOP has shown, in 2018 the Foundation devoted more resources for communication than for research projects. Furthermore, this imperative of independence no longer seems to be on the agenda in the very statutes of the Foundation. Indeed, while the contract that binds the latter to Philip Morris indicated that the Foundation was "free from any influence", it is now "free from any inappropriate influence". Concretely, criticisms made against the front group show that Philip Morris has the possibility of withdrawing funds from the Foundation, if these are engaged in research projects not desired by the cigarette manufacturer.

The lack of rigorous controls on the nature of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

The management of the Foundation for Professional Development, which has a policy of not accepting funding from the tobacco and alcohol industries, has claimed to have been unaware of the close ties between the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World and Philip Morris International. The director also claims that the grant awarded to the FDP by the grant passed internal audit checks without raising any red flags. Yet the Foundation's proximity to the tobacco industry is well known: a simple Google search results show a WHO warning about the organization on the first page of results, as well as a number of editorials published in leading scientific journals. In addition, several public health experts have reportedly contacted the FDP by email to alert them to this.

The links between smoking and tuberculosis

The event, which was about to be cancelled, was finally able to go ahead following the FDP's announcement that it would immediately terminate its contract with the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. This exclusion of the tobacco industry was a condition sine qua non of the presence of key participants, and a categorical imperative for the conference organizer, who points out that "Big Tobacco money has no place in a national conference on tuberculosis." Indeed, smoking makes people more likely to be infected with tuberculosis, and increases their risk of developing severe disease and dying from the disease. According to a study published in 2011, half of people with tuberculosis were smokers.

FT

[1] Joan Van Dyk, The oldest trick in Big Tobacco's playbook nearly derailed South Africa's TB conference. Here's why, 09/13/2022, (accessed 09/14/2022)