The American giant Coca-Cola "paid 8 million euros to influence French health researchers"

The US drinks giant, Coca-Cola, has paid more than 8 million euros in France to health professionals and researchers to influence research, according to a survey released Thursday by the French newspaper Le Monde.

According to the newspaper, the purpose of these funds was to publish research that would divert attention from the harmful effects of sugary drinks on health.

In his article on the front page, Le Monde said that Coca-Cola had paid more than "8 million euros to experts, various medical organizations as well as sports and events organizations".

In France, as elsewhere, funding comes from communication or sponsorship and not from genuine scientific work.

Coca-Cola has already been placed in a similar light after the New York Times in 2015 announced that the company had provided financial support to scientists who claimed that it was more important to do the exercise. to avoid obesity than to reduce calories.

In the outcry that followed this report, the firm promised to improve transparency and to publish on its website the names of experts and activities that it finances in the United States.

It was the same for France in 2016 following pressure from the NGO Foodwatch and it is these data that have been extensively analyzed by Le Monde.

Le Monde said that, just like in the United States, the company's funding was aimed at "making people forget the risks associated with the consumption of its drinks".

In a separate report, the Journal of Public Health Policy said Coca-Cola added several clauses to ensure that funded research produces the desired result.

These include preventing the results that displease the company to be published by reserving the right to terminate contracts without giving reasons.