The University of Zurich – Philip Morris case

Science in the service of money: how the University of Zurich sold out academic freedom to a tobacco company

In 2012, Australia took the lead in tobacco prevention by becoming the first country to introduce plain cigarette packaging. Fearing that this example would spread, the tobacco industry, led by cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, launched a global campaign against the measure, using all the means at its disposal. In particular, it made extensive use of legal channels to pursue Australia on all fronts, before the national supreme court, an international arbitration court, and even the World Trade Organization. However, by choosing this route, the industry faced a constraint: judges base their decisions on compelling factual evidence. This deprives it of the opportunity to do what it has done for more than 50 years to defend its deadly products, namely producing its own biased studies. Tobacco companies are well aware that such studies, coming from themselves, suffer from a major handicap: their obvious lack of credibility, which considerably reduces their usefulness in a legal confrontation.

They therefore urgently need scientific evidence demonstrating that plain packaging is ineffective and therefore not a legitimate measure for preventing smoking. This evidence must be presented as coming from a prestigious scientific institution, “completely independently.” Mission impossible, you might say? However, they find one that, unexpectedly, shows rare complacency by submitting entirely to their wishes—and for little cost: the University of Zurich!