Philip Morris' new CEO strengthens partnership in the Philippines

The heated/grilled tobacco strategy and supposed harm reduction is the spearhead of new CEO Jacek Olczak. Philip Morris International (PMI) and Fortune Tobacco Corporation, a company owned by billionaire Lucio Tan, have strengthened their partnership within PMFTC, a company founded in 2020 and the main tobacco player in the Philippines. Jacek Olczak, the new CEO of PMI, has confirmed that he wants to engage this country, until recently one of the most advanced in tobacco regulation, in the sale of heated/grilled tobacco.

Marketed by PMI under the IQOS brand and powered by HEETS tobacco sticks, the heated/grilled tobacco devices are presented as less harmful products than smoked tobacco and are expected to replace traditional cigarettes in the near future. Above all, it is a significant source of profit for the producer, with smokeless tobacco products currently representing 28% of PMI's turnover [1]. After launching an online sales site in June 2020, IQOS now has 15 stores in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, compared to 4 last September, despite the health crisis linked to COVID-19. A highly competitive market where PMI is battling against the Chinese industry, which offers similar devices at much lower prices [2].

The Heated Tobacco Man

Former head of the European Union zone, then CFO of the group, Jacek Olszak has been the new CEO of PMI since May 5. He succeeds André Calantzopoulos, in office since 2013 and who becomes Executive Director. Of Polish origin, Jacek Olszak has worked for PMI for 28 years and is one of the main promoters of IQOS and the tobacco company's smokeless tobacco policy.

"Our ambition is for half of our turnover to come from smokeless products by 2025," he declared during his inauguration, claiming to be carrying out a radical transformation of the company into a "smokeless" version. A deceptive speech, which attempts to make us forget that the tobacco industry still derives most of its revenue from smoked tobacco and that it has no intention of abandoning this market.

Misleading Industry Speech

Presented by the manufacturer as less harmful than smoked tobacco, heated/grilled tobacco devices are currently the products most promoted by Philip Morris. These are in fact the products that bring it the highest added value – as long as taxes remain modest – and whose real impact on health is not sufficiently proven. They also aim to confuse the issue in the minds of consumers, who are not always able to differentiate the risks associated with these products from those of electronic cigarettes. PMI thus claims that IQOS emits only ten harmful compounds, when an independent study found up to 67 [3]. Other studies have shown that the damage caused by heated/grilled tobacco on the respiratory system is similar to that caused by cigarettes. They have also highlighted that manufacturers are minimizing the risks associated with heated/grilled tobacco by reinterpreting their own data [4].

For tobacco companies, heated/toasted tobacco devices are primarily an opportunity to expand their product range and maintain high profits at a time when cigarette sales are falling in Western countries. They also allow them to take advantage of legal loopholes to circumvent anti-smoking laws, which are very focused on cigarettes and tobacco smoke. For example, some online retailers present heated/toasted tobacco as a way to access menthol tobacco products, which can be understood as a circumvention of the recent decision to ban menthol cigarettes in the United States [5]. Thus, heated/toasted tobacco products reflect the characteristics of the tobacco industry: the distortion of scientific data, the misrepresentation of harmful products and the circumvention of existing regulations.

Keywords: PMI, Philippines, IQOS, heated tobacco, grilled tobacco

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Inquirer, New Philip Morris International CEO pleased over partnership with Lucio Tan. Published on May 9, 2021, consulted on May 17, 2021. [2] Génération Sans Tabac, Philippines: Health warnings on heated tobacco and vaping products. Published on December 9, 2020, accessed on May 17, 2021. [3] Ilies BD, Moosakutty SP, Kharbatia NM, et al Identification of volatile constituents released from IQOS heat-not-burn tobacco HeatSticks using a direct sampling method. Tobacco Control. Published on May 26, 2020, accessed on May 17, 2021. [4] Heated tobacco products: From the health effect to the politics. Tobacco Control 2018;27:s1–s125. [5] Smoke-way.com, 5 Important things about IQOS ; Not proven to be safer. Accessed May 17, 2021 National Committee Against Smoking |