Big tobacco controlled nicotine gum ads

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- When pharmaceutical companies came out with nicotine gum and patches as aides to help people stop smoking, researchers found big tobacco companies reacted by threatening financial harm to the drug companies if the didn't back-off anti-smoking marketing campaigns. A new study from the University of California San Francisco reports that the threats were potent because tobacco companies routinely spent millions buying agricultural products from the same companies.