Similarly, I had a debate once with a guy on the healthiness of cheese - he was convinced that because the dairy industry supports some research, that all research on the subject was garbage and untrustworthy and that cheese *had to* be unhealthy. I stated that, well, there's also independent research, which confirms what the paid-for research shows. Not everything is a conspiracy.

I get the idea of an incentive, financial or otherwise - and in some cases, research is bought, scientists are paid off to produce results that the customer wants. But if there's bias, it needs to be found and explained.