IQOS - Tobacco Industry's Increased Spending on Alternatives to Smoking

As the parent firm of iconic cigarette brands like Marlboro and Chesterfield, Philip Morris International (PMI) perfectly represents the phrase "Big Tobacco" owing to its standing as one of the world's largest multinational enterprises.

Other than smokes, PMI isn't only an e-cigarette company. It is the owner of Fertin Pharma A/S, a firm that manufactures nicotine chewing gum, which is used by smokers to help them quit smoking. That's why they created the Foundation for a smoke-free world, which they say studies new and untested techniques of stopping smoking. PMI has also agreed to pay $1.45 billion to Vectura Group, a UK-based healthcare company that specialises in asthma medicine development.

Although PMI's smoke-free vertical is its most major "unconventional" initiative to date, Smoke-free products are intended, at least in part, to "fully replace cigarettes."

IQOS - Exactly what do you mean when you say "smoke-free" products?

Here, the tobacco is heated rather than burnt, which is the key idea. Tobacco leaves that have undergone heat processing are likely to be used in the manufacture of smoke-free products. "Beyond-nicotine" and "heat not burn" products are available in a wide range of forms, such as those with built-in electric heating components, in the form of sticks or plugs, or designed to look and feel like classic cigarette shapes and sizes.

Regulations governing how IQOS may communicate with clients about the product have an impact on how quickly people migrate to it. So that they could tell their clients that the product is a safer option than smoking cigarettes PMI submitted an application for IQOS to gain modified-risk tobacco product approval, he said.

According to an FDA-advisory panel, the evidence does not support Philip Morris' allegations. If it comes to a conclusion, it's not legally binding, and the FDA will ultimately make the final decision.