Mexico is the largest soft drink market in the world, with high rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Due to strains on the nation’s productivity and healthcare spending, Mexican lawmakers implemented one of the world’s first public health taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in 2014. Because Mexico’s tax was designed to reduce SSB consumption, it faced strong opposition from transnational food and beverage corporations. We analysed previously secret internal industry documents from major corporations in the University of California San Francisco’s Food Industry Documents Archive that shed light on the industry response to the Mexican soda tax. We also reviewed all available studies of the Mexican soda tax’s effectiveness, contrasting the results of industry-funded and non-industry-funded studies. We found that food and beverage industry trade organisations and front groups paid scientists to produce research suggesting that the tax failed to achieve health benefits while harming the economy. These results were disseminated before non-industry-funded studies could be finalized in peer review. Mexico still provided a real-world context for the first independent peer-reviewed studies documenting the effectiveness of soda taxation—studies that were ultimately promoted by the global health community. We conclude that the case of the Mexican soda tax shows that industry resistance can persist well after new policies have become law as vested interests seek to roll back legislation, and to stall or prevent policy diffusion. It also underscores the decisive role that conflict-of-interest-free, peer-reviewed research can play in implementing health policy innovations. Data are available in a public, open access repository.

中文翻译：

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食品和饮料行业对科学和政策的干预：努力阻止墨西哥实施汽水税并防止国际扩散

墨西哥是世界上最大的软饮料市场，肥胖率和 2 型糖尿病发病率很高。由于国家生产力和医疗保健支出紧张，墨西哥立法者于 2014 年对含糖饮料 (SSB) 实施了世界上第一个公共卫生税。 由于墨西哥的税收旨在减少 SSB 消费，因此遭到跨国食品的强烈反对和饮料公司。我们分析了加州大学旧金山分校食品工业文件档案​​中大公司以前的秘密内部行业文件，这些文件揭示了行业对墨西哥苏打税的反应。我们还审查了所有关于墨西哥苏打税有效性的现有研究，对比了行业资助和非行业资助的研究结果。我们发现食品和饮料行业贸易组织和前线团体向科学家支付报酬，以进行研究表明该税收未能在损害经济的同时实现健康益处。这些结果是在非行业资助的研究在同行评审中最终确定之前传播的。墨西哥仍然为第一批记录汽水税有效性的独立同行评审研究提供了一个真实世界的背景——这些研究最终得到了全球卫生界的推动。我们得出的结论是，墨西哥汽水税的案例表明，在新政策成为法律后，行业阻力可以持续很长一段时间，因为既得利益集团寻求撤销立法，并阻止或阻止政策扩散。它还强调了无利益冲突、同行评审的研究可以在实施卫生政策创新方面发挥作用。数据在公共、开放存取的存储库中可用。