It seems like a long history. Here's another example from the 90s > In a 1992 internal memo by Whelan disclosed by Consumer Reports, Whelan directed her staff

It seems like a long history. Here's another example from the 90s > In a 1992 internal memo by Whelan disclosed by Consumer Reports, Whelan directed her staff to ask McNeil Specialty for $10,000 toward a white paper on sweeteners, and she disclosed that her staff would seek "more CCC [Calorie Control Council] money... to help us get new sweetener booklet out". McNeil Specialty Products (now McNeil Nutritionals) owns the US marketing rights to Splenda, the branded name of the artificial sweetener sucralose; the Calorie Control Council is an industry trade association for producers of artificial sweeteners, fat substitutes, and low-calorie foods. The same memo instructs that staffers give "special attention" to "Mr. McDermott at Searle about meat money".