While speaking at the American College of Cardiology yesterday, Steve Nissen criticized the American Heart Association for its financial relationship with Coca-Cola. Why? He said their ties influenced AHA statements that a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks needs more study and the findings of a study linking sodas to obestiy weren’t conclusive, the Associated Press reports.

Nissen blamed the AHA position on Diet Coke’s involvement in the AHA’s red dress campaign to raise awareness of heart disease among women. “Our societies have been bought, and it’s time to draw the line,” Nissen said. “When you take the money, you better accept the taint that goes with it.”

However, the AP points out Nissen had the wrong red dress. The campaign he cited is called ‘The Heart Truth’ and involves Diet Coke and the federal government’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The AHA’s ‘Go Red for Women’ campaign also uses a red dress, but has no relationship with Coke, and the AHA doesn’t takes money from Coca-Cola, AHA president and Baylor University cardiologist Clyde Yancy tells the AP.

However, Nissen did score points by criticizing the ACC, which granted Continuing Medical Education credits for a seminar sponsored by Merck in which an experimental Merck drug was touted. All four faculty members for the session consult for Merck, the AP reports. “That is wrong. It shouldn’t happen,” ACC chief executive officer Jack Lewin tells the AP. “We can do better than that.”

Robert Harrington, head of heart research at Duke University, who also spoke at the session, tells the AP that scientists and professional societies need to do more to have “firewalls” to protect their work from corporate influence, but that most research in the US is paid for by industry, and fair and ethical partnerships are needed to develop treatments. “While it’s easy to say all of this should be funded by the NIH,” he tells the news service, “that’s not the reality.”