# Philip Morris Int'l To Sell Marlboro Heatstick



## Alex (29/6/14)

source

Philip Morris International Inc. is hoping to capitalize on the growing appetite for alternatives to traditional smokes like e-cigarettes with a new Marlboro-branded product that heats tobacco rather than burning it.

The world's second-biggest tobacco company on Thursday detailed its plans to release the Marlboro HeatStick in cities in Japan and Italy later this year, with further expansion plans in 2015.
The products represent another run at improving heating technologies that failed when originally introduced in the 1990s.

The short, cigarette-like sticks are heated to maximum of 660 degrees Fahrenheit (350 degrees Celsius) in a hollow pen-like device called iQOS (pronounced EYE-cohs) to create a tobacco-flavored nicotine vapor. Unlike popular e-cigarettes that use liquid nicotine, the HeatStick contains real tobacco, a point the company believes will make them more attractive to cigarette smokers.

It's one of several so-called "reduced-risk" products Philip Morris International plans to test as the industry diversifies beyond traditional cigarettes amid declining demand.
Products like the HeatStick "represent a potential paradigm shift for the industry, public health and adult smokers," CEO André Calantzopoulos said during an investor day presentation Thursday.

The company, based in New York and Switzerland, has spent about $2 billion over more than a decade on development of the products and expects that iQOS would boost its profit by $700 million when sales reach 30 billion units.

The overseas Marlboro maker announced plans in January to invest up to 500 million euros (about $680 million) for two plants in Italy to make the products.
On Tuesday, the company said in addition to its own cigarette alternatives, it purchased U.K.-based e-cigarette maker Nicocigs Ltd. Financial terms were not disclosed. In the 1990s, the contraptions that heat tobacco rather than burning it didn't pass muster with smokers. Even though the products left no lingering odor and didn't produce ashes, they tasted different than cigarettes and were more difficult to use.

Now, a surging e-cigarette industry has tobacco companies hoping for a resurgence of the technologies that some argue are less harmful than lighting up. Calantzopoulos noted that e-cigarettes don't deliver the taste and ritual that is as close as possible to regular fire-and-tobacco smokes.

With the health risks associated with traditional cigarettes and changes in societal expectations, it's no wonder many of the world's 1 billion smokers want to quit or try other tobacco alternatives. In the U.S., nearly half of the nation's 42 million adult smokers try to quit each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In more recent years, much of the attention to quitting has steered away from nicotine gum and patches to electronic cigarettes, which many smokers credit with helping them kick the habit. The HeatStick builds on Accord — a product with a clunky pager-like heater in which smaller cigarettes were inserted — that was test-marketed in the late 1990s by Philip Morris USA, which spun off its international business in 2008 and is owned by Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc.

One of its other products in development resembles Eclipse, a cigarette introduced by competitor R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the mid-1990s that used a carbon tip that heated tobacco after being lit by a lighter.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Andre (29/6/14)

Quite interesting, wonder if it will take off.


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## Zodiac (29/6/14)

Quite interesting indeed, with real tobacco instead of e-liquid, i wonder if all the tar, carbon monoxide and chemicals are still present.


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## MarkK (29/6/14)

Probably present, but will come with claims of safety due to being a vaporizer and chemicals being in low concentrations due to low temps and no combustion.

Well at least they are trying to keep up? funny how this healthier tech has been available for years but they are only going to use it now. even with the deaths every year...

That annoys me, its always about money...

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Kuhlkatz (14/10/14)

One of several that the company 'PLANS TO TEST' ? They make it sound like new users will be the guinea pigs.
If they intend to get back market share from vaping with this, they would have done their homework already and realized that not many vapers will budge or go back to tobacco products.
This is likely why the bastards don't really care to 'suddenly' spend all that money on research and why they are all pulling media strings and backing the restrictive legislation for vaping 100%. The competition simply do not have endless pockets to fund legal battles, so it's a quick win for Big Tobacco that suddenly seems to give a shit about OUR HEALTH ( read OUR MONEY ).


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