Philip Morris hopes smokeless cigarette alternative can catch fire
Philip Morris hopes a technology that failed earlier can catch the current e-smoke wave
Philip Morris International is hoping to capitalise 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 HeatSticks in cities in Japan and Italy later this year, with further expansion plans in 2015.
The products represent another attempt at improving heating technologies that failed when originally introduced in the 1990s.
The short, cigarette-like sticks are heated to a maximum of 350 degrees Celsius in a hollow pen-like device called iQOS (pronounced EYE-cohs) to create a tobacco-flavoured nicotine vapour. Unlike popular e-cigarettes that use liquid nicotine, HeatSticks contain 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 HeatSticks "represent a potential paradigm shift for the industry, public health and adult smokers", CEO Andre Calantzopoulos said during an investor day presentation on Thursday.