The world’s largest international tobacco company launched an alternative product in Britain on Wednesday, designed to help governments “phase-out” conventional cigarettes.
Philip Morris’ Chief Executive Andre Calantzopoulos spoke to the BBC about the launch of the IQOS, an electronic device used with mini cigarettes. The company has invested over $2 billion into developing smoking products with a “reduced risk”, as the population increasingly turn their backs on traditional cigarettes.
“I believe there will come a moment in time where I would say we have sufficient adoption of these alternative products … to start envisaging, together with governments, a phase-out period for cigarettes,” Calantzopoulos said in an interview on BBC Radio 4.
“I hope this time will come soon,” he added.
The IQOS is not an e-cigarette, which produces vapour from a nicotin-laced liquid, but a £45 battery pack that charges a cigarette holder which is then used to smoke small tobacco sticks, which will cost £8 for 20.
Calantzopoulos is positive about the new product, which users see as more authentic than an e-cigarette, with trials in Japan showing that 70 percent of smokers stay with the new substitute once they have tried it.
However, Deborah Arnott, chief executive of UK health charity Action on Smoking and Health, remained sceptical about the benefits of the new device.
“If smokers switch to electronic cigarettes or other products that can be shown to cut the risks to their health, this could lead to a big improvement in public health,” she told the BBC.
“But we need independent evidence to support any claims made by the tobacco industry.
“Philip Morris is a tobacco company. They are still making most of their profits from selling cigarettes. On current trends, smoking will kill one billion people in the 21st century, most in poor countries.
“If Philip Morris really want to see the end of smoking they have to stop promoting smoking to new young smokers around the world.”
Investors have shown little positivity to the news, with Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) shares currently trading down 0.46 percent at 90.15 (1502GMT).