Need for Biological Research by Philip Morris Research and Development

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Need for Biological Research by Philip Morris Research and Development

This early 1968 memo from Helmut Wakeham (Philip Morris' Director of Research) to Clifford Henry Goldsmith (PM USA's Chief of Operations) stresses the need for the company to engage in internal biological research on its own products, saying "...we face a real need to obtain our own facts and data...to counteract conclusions drawn from these [public health] studies."

The document also alludes strongly to the rumored "gentleman's agreement" wherein the major U.S. tobacco companies agreed not to perform in-house biological research ro compete on the basis of smoking and health:

"We have reason to believe that in spite of previous arrangements within the tobacco industry at least some of the major companies have been increasing biological studies within their own facilities." [Italicized emphasis added]

The memo also mentions how the American Tobacco Company had already secretly moved their research out of a medical school and into an in-house facility:

Further, the biomedical work supported by American Tobacco at the Medical College of Virginia...was relocated under conditions of extreme secrecy during this past summer from the college to their new research facilities at Bermuda Hundred.

This document was used as a Trial Exhibit in Texas and Washington state.

Company/Source: Lorillard (Philip Morris document found in Lorillard collection)
Document Date: 12 Nov 1968
Length: 4 pages
Bates No. 85868118/8121
URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/eim99d00