Tobacco industry ownership of pharmaceutical companies: an international survey of people with respiratory disease.

The 2021 purchase of the respiratory pharmaceutical company Vectura by Phillip Morris International has been criticised by the public health and medical community, as a conflict of interest, with little input to date, from the patient community or the public. To address this gap, the COPD Foundation, along with global partners, surveyed 1196 people with chronic respiratory disease. 70% were bothered by a tobacco company making an inhaler to treat lung conditions and 48% reported that they would want to switch inhalers if they knew that a tobacco company made or sold their inhaler devices. Patients care about who makes the therapies used to treat their diseases.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interests: RT-S is a retiree and shareholder of GlaxoSmithKline. She is a non-executive board member of ENA Respiratory and reports holding share options. She also reports personal fees from Vocalis Health, ENA Respiratory, Teva, and Immunomet. TW is President & CEO of Allergy & Asthma Network in the USA. She serves as President of GAAPP. Both AAN and GAAPP receive funding for unbranded disease awareness, education and advocacy from Aimmune, ALK, Amgen, AZ, DBV, GSK, Novartis, Sanofi/Regeneron, Viatris, TEVA. TW personally reports speaker & advisor fees from Aimmune, ALK, Amgen, AZ, DBV, Novartis and Sanofi/Regeneron. BT reports consultancy to GlaxosmithKline and participation at an advisory board for Boehringer Ingelheim. DMM is a former employee and current shareholder of GlaxoSmithKline and receives royalties from Up to Date. He is also a consultant to GlaxoSmithKline, Medical Director of the COPD Foundation, and an expert witness for people suing the Tobacco Industry. LW, TD, AS, KFH, VG, SH, NH and LM report no conflicts.