Tobacco Documents Online

A DISCUSSION OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY AND R.J. REYNOLDS INDUSTRIES' SUPPORT OF BIO-MEDICAL RESEARCH Ten years before the 1964 Surgeon General's report, representa- tives of leading tobacco manufacuturers, tobacco growers and ware- housemen formed the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, and pledged to provide continuing funds for research into all aspects of the questions of tobacco use and human health. Since then the industry group, reorganized as the Council for Tobacco Research-USA, has channeled $51 million into biomedical research through the American Medical Association and to other independent researchers. Individual tobacco companies have funded millions of dollars in additional biomedical research programs during the same period bringing the industry total to more than $70 million. R.J. Reynolds spending on health and biomedical.research to date is in excess of $33 million and we have earmarked another $8 million for sponsorship of smoking and health studies and biomedical.research in 1979. We fund research for several reasons. First, our sense of integrity dictates that we respond directly to a fundamental attack on our business. Second, there are a large number of crucial questions that need scientific answers in the area of smoking and health. A third reason is that important research projects are currently running short of funds. As it is, science really knows little about the causes or development mechanisms of chronic .degenerative diseases imputed to cigarettes, including lung cancer, emphysema, and cardio- vascular disorders. A number of attacks against smoking have been based on studies that have been incomplete or that have relied on what we believe to be dubious methods or hypotheses and faulty interpretations. The central part of R.J. Reynolds' philosophy regarding the smoking and health question is that the issue should be decided impartially and conclusively in the scientific laboratory -- not in the halls of government nor on the front pages of newspapers. We believe that any proof developed should be presented fully and objectively to the public and that the public should then be allowed to make its own decisions based on the evidence. The biomedical research supported by the tobacco industry through the Council for Tobacco Research-USA, as well as the research supported individually by R.J. Reynolds Industries, has in every case been channeled through scientific advisory boards comprised of physicians and medical researchers. Grants are o

based solelyon scientific merit and recipients alone are responsible "for reporting or publishing their findings through scientific journals, societies or conventions without any restrictions whatsoever. Since 1954, the Council has made awards of $51 million to 640 grantees in nearly 250 medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions. Of that total, R.J. Reynolds has contributed more than $20 million. Early in 1978, R.J. Reynolds Industries decided to substantially increase its individual support of worthwhile biomedical research programs related to degenerative diseases in man. The company was fortunate in securing the services of Dr. Frederick Seitz, formerly President of Rockefeller University, as a counselor and adviser on this stepped-up program. Since then, Dr. Seitz has secured the services of Dr. James A. Shannon, formerly Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Maclyn McCarty, former Vice President for Medicine-and Director of the Hospital of The Rockefeller Uni- versity, to assist in establishing guidelines and evaluating the merits of both ongoing and proposed research programs. On the advice of Dr. Seitz and his colleagues, Reynolds decided to focus its efforts on those exceptional cases where the rigidity of the support providea through federal funds excludes the support of important programs in the hands of distinguished and imaginative investigators. Funds provided by Reynolds have been used to make possible work of an interdisciplinary kind that would otherwise have been delayed or neglected. Groups supported by Reynolds provide annual reports of progress and our experience thus far seems to demonstrate that the most promising research groups are associated with a clinical environ- ment where human disease is of immediate interest. As a matter of continuing practice, Dr. Seitz and his colleagues maintain close contact with funded programs and provide continuous advice and counsel to the company with regard to these programs. Following are capsule descriptions of programs currently being supported by R.J. Reynolds Industries: One of our larger programs is centered at the Medical School of the University of Colorado in Denver under the direction of Dr. Barry Pierce. Dr. Pierce and his colleagues are testing the theory that the cells which are most, if not exclusively, prone to cause malignant cancer are the so-called stem cells or embryonic cells in the various tissues. It is Dr. Pierce's hope that it will ultimately prove possible to treat or inhibit cancer by adusting the cellular environment in such a way as to prevent developing stem cells from deviating to the cancerous mode.

-'3-- Professor Theodore T. Puck, of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute .for Cancer Research has pioneered the methods of growing individual mammalian cells, including human cells, in cultures outside the organism. This develop- ment has made it possible to carry out a wide variety of experiments on the reaction of cells to environmental agents. RJR is providing support to Dr. Puck's laboratory in order to stimulate interdisciplinary research between this group and that of Dr. Pierce. RJR is supporting another cancer related pro- gram under the leadership of Dr. Donald R. Cooper at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hospital in Philadelphia. The appearance of cancer cells is known to trigger the production of antibodies and related proteins in many instances such as in the case of multiple myeloma, a form of cancer of the bone marrow. Dr. Cooper and his colleagues are developing procedures for removing such proteins in a highly selective way by circulating the blood outside the body. This technique has been used to provide effective relief against adverse symptoms in a cancer patient suffering seriously from the effects of myeloma. This technique is permitting the investigators to study many features of the generation of ant~k~dies and related proteins by the various types of cancer tissues. Another program receiving RJR support is centered at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Institute in New York C~ty under Dr. Gaetano Giraldo. Dr. Giraldo is searching for a possible viral link in the appearance of the disease xeroderma pigmentosa. In this disease the skin does not repaiz itself when damaged by sunlight and the les~on can become cancerous. Although virus related forms of cancer are well- known in many animal systems, there has been only one well-documented form in humans, namely Burkitt's lymphona. There is a wide- spread belief, however, that other cases exist in humans but are masked by the fact that medical ethics do not permit the type of trial and error research that is possible with animal subjects.

Another major program supported by RJR is under the leadership of Dr. Russell Ross at the Medical School of the University of Seattle. This program is devoted to the origins of arte- riosclerosis. This research investigates one of the roles of the endothelial layer inside veins and arteries which shield the smooth muscle cells from some of the agents in the blood while allowing appropriate nutrients to pass through to nourish the muscle. The endothelial cells can easily be wiped off by mechanical action. Normally, when such damage occurs the exposed area is covered with platelet cells from the blood -- those which promote clotting -- while the other endothelial cells both spread and multiply so as to repair the damage. Dr. Ross and his colleagues believe that repeated damage to the endothelium in a given location can cause the smooth muscle cells to multiply in a pathologioal manner at the site, thereby producing a thickened area where blood constituents including cholesterol can accumulate. Such thickened areas are natural places for blood clots to form or to become entrapped if formed else- where. It is hoped %hat such systematic studies will permit us to understand more clearly how dietary and genetic factors enter into arteriosclerosis and to develop methods for early detection and possib]e prevention of pathological thickening. A program at Bowman Gray Medical School in Winston- Salem under the leadership of Dr. Thomas B. Clarkson involves the development of a primate farm and the study of Stress-related diseases in primates. Particular emphasis ~n this research is being placed on arteriosclerosis. An interdisciplinary group at the Harvard Uni- versity Medical School is the recipient of an RJR grant for a program concerned with the physical and chemical properties of the kidney, particularly the role it plays in connection with cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure and heart function. The program is under the direction of Professor A.C. Barger and his colleague Professor Edgar Haber. The interdisciplinary group includes individuals from Massachusetts General Hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the New England Primate Research Center. This work takes advantage

-5- of r~cent advances in analytic techniques which make possible physical and chemical measure- ments of microscopic quantities of materials and at very small dimensions. Among other things the group is looking at are details of the way in which the kidney alters the composition of the blood and at the action of various agents and drugs which affect the kidney and influence its role as an important unit in the entire cardiovascular system. Another RJR supported program is underway at the University of California in San Diego. This program is related to another program supported by the Council for Tobacco Research-USA which is underway at the University of California in Los Angeles. The RJR program is under the leadership of Dr. Kenneth Moser. Dr. Moser and his colleagues are concerned with all aspects of lung function and disease. Their work is carried on in a clinical environment . and brings together a multi-disciplinary research group including diagnosticians, immunologists, biochemists, physiologists, as well as experts in nuclear medicine and instrument-design and use. It is hoped that this research will generate a great deal of new knowledge concerning the lung and its inte,action both with outside agencies and with the organism in which it resides. The Rockefeller University is a small institution of very high quality. Most of its research is focused on medicine and medically related bio- chemistry. Three years ago, R.J. Reynolds Industries made a five-year grant to the Uni- versity to, support its research and educational programs, placing emphasis on its biomedical activ- ities.. Recent work supported has focused on the development of techniques for controlling the diabetic condition in diabetic individuals. Another investigation is devoted to the way in which nutritional factors influence the rates of drug metabolism in man. Closely linked with this is the way in which drugs affect one another in multiple drug use and the manner in which environmental toxins and carcinogens alter the metabolism of drugs. Other investigations under- way are: The role of genes in human cells with particula~ emphasis on the production of interferons which inhibit viral ~iseases. o o

-6- Neurological research which focuses on the structure of cell membranes of the nervous system and on the regulation of cellular growth and organization. Immunological studies dealing with the structure of key antigens and with the synthesis of basic proteins. Studies at the molecular level of the factors which influence the growth of cancer cells.