Did the United States smokeless tobacco industry use cigarette industry strategies to sponsor and manipulate research?

While the Smokeless Tobacco Research Council awarded some research that may have weakened the industry, the Council's imbalanced portfolio of projects and inextricable link to industry likely favored the interest group position. Thus, we cannot conclude that the smokeless tobacco industry sponsored research solely for scientific discovery. Greater independence of industry-sponsored research could be achieved by delegating scientific decision-making to scientists (not legal counsel), limiting governance to those unaffiliated with the industry sponsor and not relying on grantees to defend the interest group position.