IQOS e-cigarettes prepare for expansion in the United States

In an interview with Bloomberg Japan, the CEO of Philip Morris said the company is preparing to expand IQOS in the United States.

For many people in the vaping community, fighting for the rights of vaping products is one of the issues closest to their daily lives. Ever since e-cigarettes first appeared as a smoking cessation tool intended to reduce the harms of smoking, that struggle has been ongoing. Supporters believe the clear benefits of e-cigarettes justify their use, while critics remain deeply concerned about their potential risks and often compare smoking with alternatives that are considered safer. But as major tobacco companies like Philip Morris move into the e-cigarette market and begin making demands of their own, the situation becomes more complicated. These moves clearly show that e-cigarettes are not only seen as effective smoking cessation tools, but also that tobacco companies fear what may happen as more people learn about the relative risks of smoking. They realize that the decline of combustible cigarettes is only a matter of time, so they are planning to enter related industries. Philip Morris was one of the earliest companies to publicly state that it planned to eventually stop selling cigarettes entirely, but according to Bloomberg Japan, the company’s CEO said in a recent interview that it has not yet started doing so.

Earlier this month, Philip Morris International CEO Andre Calantzopoulos appeared on Bloomberg Japan’s morning program, where they discussed expanding the IQOS business into additional markets, including the United States. He expressed confidence that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would approve the sale of the company’s product in the U.S. this year. This heat-not-burn product has already launched in several Asian countries, though Philip Morris International says those markets have served as testing grounds.

Calantzopoulos also said IQOS’s major success in Japan proves that other countries should follow its example. As one of the last developed countries to maintain relatively limited public smoking bans, Japan has historically had a higher smoking rate than many others. According to him, the adult smoking rate in Japan fell by nearly 20% over the past three years, which may be directly related to the rise in use of these products. In fact, he argued that if the government had relied only on restricting cigarettes, it might have taken 20 years to achieve such a decline.

As a tool for reducing the harms of smoking, broader acceptance of e-cigarettes should be a good thing. However, we still need to remain cautious about the influence of major tobacco companies in the e-cigarette market. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease worldwide, and much of that can be attributed to the long-term suppression of smoking research by large tobacco companies. As fewer people choose cigarettes each year, these companies have recognized it as a troubling sign for their industry. As a result, they have been searching for ways to remain viable in a smoke-free future, and e-cigarettes have become an obvious target. Philip Morris International has pledged to allocate $80 million annually over the next 12 years to launch a nonprofit foundation aimed at researching smoke-free alternatives such as IQOS. The company later updated its policies to express a new mission of helping move away from cigarettes. If you still doubt that its ultimate goal is to control the e-cigarette industry, Andre Calantzopoulos has even gone on record saying that Philip Morris International is actively planning for a future in which it no longer sells combustible cigarettes at all. So while progress in the fight for vaping rights is encouraging, we still need to stay vigilant.

We should never allow major tobacco companies to use this opening to seize a large share of the e-cigarette business. These companies have already shown that they were never genuinely committed to customer safety, and we should not allow them to abandon ship only when circumstances begin to change. Countless deaths have resulted directly from the misinformation spread by companies like Philip Morris International, so why should they be given another path to survive? Ending the harms of smoking has always been a primary goal of the vaping industry, but how those goals are achieved is something we must take seriously. Otherwise, one day we may wake up and find that these companies are once again hiding the truth.