June 5 launch for iQOS

Philip Morris Korea said on Wednesday that it would launch its heated-tobacco product iQOS in Seoul on June 5, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

“Our vision is a smoke-free future,” the company’s CEO Chong Il-woo said at a press conference at the Banyan Tree Club and Spa in Seoul.

The product will be sold as a system, which includes the iQOS device, a pocket charger, and charging and cleaning accessories. To use the device, consumers will have to buy tobacco sticks called HEETS.

The company told the conference that the heated tobacco sticks delivered similar levels of nicotine to that delivered by traditional cigarettes, but reduced the exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals by 90 percent.

IQOS will be launched in special iQOS stores in Gwanghwamun and Garosu-gil, Seoul, and at CU convenience stores and selected Electromart outlets. Sales are due to be expanded to the rest of the country later this year.

The consumer price for the iQOS kit has been set at 120,000 won ($107), and each pack of 20 HEETS will retail at 4,300 won, close to the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes.

HEETS sticks, which deliver 0.5 mg of nicotine each, will be available in four flavors.