Big Pharma has significant reasons to protect Big tobacco, and the FDA has significant reasons to protect Big Pharma.
If we all adopted a diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and seeds / exercised regularly, etc .. which have been proven Health remedies, instead of demanding drugs that made you feel better and/or masked the symptoms you're dealing with because we're a Nation of people that for the most part are unwilling to do these things and expect immediate gratification, then a very large percentage of Pharma profit / and Pharma companies would drop off the map ..
The only logical reason that the FDA would protect Big Pharma is to keep the population at large as chronically ill as possible .. thus providing a ready source of large profits for the Pharmas .. but, if, in fact, we assume this is true, do those large profits being sucked in by Big Pharma not also fuel the R&D efforts on drugs that have saved countless lives over the years .. ?? IOW, maybe it is the tail wagging the dog, but does some good come out of it .. ??