Author: Staff Writer

  • Consumers

    Consumers

    Malcolm Griffiths

    For many people, the threats they face in day-to-day life are far more immediate than their long-term health. The mission of harm reduction should be to empower people to make their own choices about what products they consume and their own health decisions, even if those decisions don’t align with what public health experts would say is optimal. This was the general focus during a plenary panel discussion at the GTNF called Consumers: The Key Stakeholders.

    Most of the session centered consumers standing up and advocating for the industry, the global attacks on flavored e-liquids and growing threats from the World Health Organization (WHO), which remains suspicious of tobacco harm reduction. Panelists agreed that while some consumers prefer to remain on the sidelines, many others are willing to get organized and campaign for tobacco harm reduction and the vaping industry. “The consumer voice is very powerful,” a panelist said.

    A major concern for the vaping industry is the concerted campaign against flavors. Flavors, according to one panelist, are used to by the industry’s enemies to redirect the conversation toward children. “They’ll say vaping flavors attracts children, and then they get us to play in their playground,” he said. “It’s very different. You [consumers] have got to keep asserting that adults use flavors.”

    The WHO is a threat no matter what, the panel agreed. The global health body is now even talking about redefining smoke to include anything that’s heated and emits a vapor. “This means that any customizability of a product will be restricted and have limits on it, which basically means all the vape products will be the same,” explained one panelist. “These [recommendations] have to be resisted. The WHO doesn’t make laws, but it’s very influential, and these things can’t just be waved away.”

    The scientific studies the WHO uses to justify its negative view toward next-generation products as tools for harm reduction are “fantasy and cherry-picked” studies, according to another speaker. “The people who are against harm reduction will never sleep. They’re always working, and they’re highly funded,” a panelist said. “[Consumers] have to stay alert, and they have to stay organized because, at the end of the day, there are more consumers than there are activists against harm reduction, and we’ll vote. So, consumers really have a big role to play.”

    Consumers are the key stakeholders. However, when talking about consumers, regulators must acknowledge that not every smoker is the same, according to the panel. Many smokers don’t want to quit combustibles. “The important thing is to understand why and respect their choice,” a panelist said.

    One speaker said that the industry also needs more responsible vape reviewers on YouTube because the current ones “are absolutely appalling.” The speaker urged consumers to make their voices heard in politics. “You’ve got to have somehow to get ahold of your Parliamentarians or your politicians in your country and get them to campaign on your behalf because there are many, many consumers, but you haven’t got great voice in government, and that’s what you really need to try and get,” he said.

    At the end of the session, an audience member asked the panel if it could see a situation where consumers would sue regulators over counterproductive rules, such as flavor bans. “I have mentioned the fact that it would be interesting if someone could do a test case, but I don’t know whether that someone could come from the consumer side and sue [over regulatory action],” the panelist said. “It’s also expensive, and someone will end up having to pay if you lose.”

  • From Local to Global

    From Local to Global

    Photo: Malcolm Griffiths

    African countries tend to formulate health policies based on advice from the World Health Organization, a strategy that is problematic when it comes to tobacco harm reduction (THR) aspects of tobacco control, participants at the 2021 Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) were told. The nub of the problem is that tobacco control advice is filtered through the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which was written toward the end of the last century in an attempt to deal with the ill effects of combustible tobacco. Consequently, since no attempt has been made to write a new framework relevant for the innovative noncombustible products developed this century, the WHO has no adequate framework with which to help governments regulate these new products appropriately.

    These points were made during the plenary panel “From Local to Global: Regulatory Policy Trends.”

    Of course, there is something odd here because the direction of policy travel—or, at least, the policy-advice travel—is in the opposite direction to that suggested in the session’s title: It goes from global to national. But that should not be interpreted as the reason for its failings. Things can fall apart just as easily when traveling in the other direction.

    In the U.S., states and other jurisdictions have imposed restrictions on reduced-risk products that have caused increases in smoking, which they were designed to reduce, and increases in sales of illicit products. But at least there is something of a bright side here if you believe that government policymaking is evidence based. In not working, these restrictions provide evidence to use against suggestions that they should be applied more widely, even at a national level.

    I’m not sure that I’m convinced in this matter, but then I come from the land where a lot of people still cleave to the idea that Brexit was a good move: the idea that by becoming more insular we would become more global.

    There is no doubt, however, that the interactions between the local and the global are complex. One presentation made the point that a main principle in respect of environmental issues was that there was a need to think globally while acting locally, something that was applicable in respect of tobacco harm reduction. The FCTC had a floor but no ceiling, so it was up to individual countries to adapt the convention’s articles to suit national, regional and local circumstances. While countries had circumstances that differed one to the other, there existed, too, internal differences. The U.K. had seen a significant reduction in the consumption of combustible tobacco products but not among its marginalized communities. And in Brazil, while tobacco smoking had fallen significantly in urban areas, this phenomenon had not been reflected in the countryside.

    One question that arises from this is, how local do you go? If you return to the title of the session, it is obvious that there is a glaring omission: smokers. OK, you might argue rightly that smokers aren’t involved in policymaking; we’re not debating in ancient Athens, but surely, they should get a look in—even a walk-on, nonspeaking part? No. The session was told it was obvious from the documents released ahead of the FCTC’s Conference of the Parties (COP9) in November that smokers, who were not at the center when the FCTC was developed, were not meant to be at the center of the upcoming debates. It seemed as though it was easier to ignore them, and this raised a social justice issue.

    Many of the presentations at the session tended toward simply describing the counterproductive nature of much tobacco and nicotine regulation, especially, but by no means exclusively, in Canada and the U.S.—counterproductive, that is, given the original objective was to drain the harm caused by the consumption of combustible tobacco products. Such regulation was focused largely on flavors and nicotine and justified often on the need to protect young people, even though there was little credible justification for such actions.

    Things are different in China, where, it was said, optimists in the electronic cigarette business broadly welcomed a move by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to bring these products into line with regulations governing combustible cigarettes. It was hoped that such regulation, designed in part to protect consumers, would bring clarity to the operation of an industry that had so far been largely unregulated while growing rapidly and imposing its own standards in such areas as youth protection and recycling.

    We live in interesting times, and the most interesting regulatory issue on the horizon has to be that concerning synthetic nicotine.

  • Getting to Net Zero

    Getting to Net Zero

    Photo: Malcolm Griffiths

    Globally, illicit tobacco consumption continues to rise. The organized criminal gangs behind tobacco smuggling are clever, creative and adoptive, hence concerted actions are needed to successfully combat their activities. Razvan Dina, police subcommissioner for the Directorate of Preventing and Countering Illegal Migration and Crossborder Crime within the Romanian Border Police, described how the black market in his country in 2021 had decreased in most regions as a consequence of authorities’ efforts and a communication campaign that made consumers aware that buying illicit tobacco products was no victimless crime. Romania shares a long border with non-European Union (EU) countries Moldova and Serbia, where cigarettes are up to four times cheaper. In the first half of this year, police seized 45 percent more illicit tobacco than it did in the first half of 2020.

     

    Sergio Miranda, underground economy specialist in the Quebec police force, presented the Canadian province’s widely recognized anti-black market squad program, ACCES, which was introduced in the 1990s and basically creates ad hoc financing that is given to governmental agencies to fight illicit trade and redirect users to the legal market. Consisting of undercover agents, intelligence officers and technical and strategic analysts, the task force creates medium-term and long-term investigation teams and promotes partnerships with police forces of other provinces and the U.S. The squad focuses on alcohol, tobacco, gaming and cannabis. With regard to illicit tobacco, Canada’s main problem was the massive amounts of illegally imported cut rag tobacco, which were made into tobacco products and redistributed across the border, Miranda said. With the help of ACCES and increased enforcement, the illegal tobacco market in Quebec could be reduced from 40 percent to 12 percent.

     

    Whether consumers turn to illicit products is mostly an issue of affordability, according to Lawrence Hutter, senior adviser for Alvarez & Marsal, who published a report on the topic. The study, which analyzed data from 71 countries across 15 years, representing 82 percent of global cigarette volume and 92 percent of global cigarette retail volume, found that around the world, tobacco taxation overwhelmingly was the key driver for smokers to turn to illegal products. If cigarettes became 10 percent more expensive relative to income, illegal trade grew by 7 percent, the report showed. Valuable lessons, Hutter indicated, came from Romania, Latvia and Malaysia, where sudden increases in tobacco tax caused significant spikes in illicit cigarette consumption.

     

    Sharing his 30 years of experience investigating terrorism crimes with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Ian Monteith, global anti-illicit trade operations director at Japan Tobacco International, drew a disturbing picture of the criminals behind tobacco smuggling. Like the mafia, they deal in anything that will make them money. In Asia, he pointed out, the Covid-19 pandemic had brought about a new form of slavery—bondage labor. If people couldn’t repay high-interest loans, organized crime gangs took their children and compelled them to forced labor. Consumers who buy illegal products support this system, he stressed.

     

    In the EU, the pandemic also changed organized crime’s operations. With borders suddenly being closed, traffickers could no longer use their traditional routes and had to move illicit cigarette production into the EU. Illegal factories emerged for the first time in Belgium and the Netherlands, from where criminals targeted the high-price U.K. and Northern Ireland markets.

     

    The number of illicit plants has been increasing, and buying tobacco machinery on the internet is easy. A lot of the equipment comes from China. On the positive side, Covid-related border closures restricted the availability of illicit products, especially tobacco. The U.K. earned an extra £1.4 billion ($1.36 billion) in tobacco revenues as a result.

     

    To successfully combat illicit trade, panelists agreed, governments need to realize that well-intended tax and public health policies can inadvertently boost organized crime. They should step up enforcement and explain to the public that buying illicit products is no victimless crime. And they should forge partnerships. The battle against illicit trade can be won only through a joint effort by law enforcement, public health professionals, policymakers and legitimate tobacco companies.

  • The Fork in the Road

    The Fork in the Road

    Photo: Malcolm Griffiths

    The vaping industry faces many challenges. The road to a viable future for these products must pass through sensible regulations based on science. In the current environment, unfortunately, this will be challenging, according to speakers on the GTNF plenary panel The Fork in the Road: What is Next for Tobacco and Nicotine. Misperceptions surrounding nicotine and vaping products, the panelists agreed, are furthered by the mass media’s “wonton disregard” for the science behind the tobacco harm reduction potential of electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS).

    One speaker noted that in addition to many countries banning or erecting insurmountable barriers to vaping products, well-funded anti-nicotine activists are attacking the people who are bringing reduced-risk products to adult combustible cigarette smokers trying to quit smoking. These groups are opposed to the tobacco harm reduction that science and innovation can bring.

    All of these activities together only serve to enhance the vaping industry’s problem: the massive public misperception that vaping is as deadly as smoking cigarettes. The fact that a significant number of physicians mistakenly belief that nicotine, rather than combustion, is responsible for smoking-related illness, bodes ill for the perceptions among the general population. “If physicians believe this, imagine the views of the average smoker in Kenya or Chicago, Illinois, or in Australia,” one speaker said.

    While anti-nicotine activists have done their share to misperceptions, the vaping industry too is partly to blame, according to one panelist. The ENDS industry can do a lot more than feel helpless or complain, this speaker noted. Innovation in harm reduction cannot occur without the vaping industry’s support. That means responsible marketing, combating illicit trade, limiting youth access and making sure that the ENDS industry is doing what it can to prevent underage use.

    Panelists also expressed concern about the direction of the vapor market in the wake of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial orders (MDOs), with some describing a “Wild West” scenario. After receiving MDOs, some companies have turned to synthetic nicotine because that product currently is outside of the agency’s jurisdiction. A panelist said that the FDA’s “scorched earth” approach to flavored products is only creating bigger problems in the market, adding that if a market isn’t regulated, there is still going to be an unregulated illicit market that has the potential to be more deadly than that for combustible tobacco.

    “Nobody wants kids to take up the products … it’s a very significant responsibility that we in industry be there to be the stewards of that concept in generating science and evidence,” a panelist said. “We should all be proud of the good science that is being generated … that is our responsibility: to generate and publish and participate in the scientific debate and pursue reasonable regulation. What is reasonable? I don’t know. It’s not going to be nothing. We all have to get over it and figure out what is the right way forward so we can go back to helping the consumer and making sure we’re only serving smokers who are looking for alternatives to combustibles.”

  • Diversity and Inclusion

    Diversity and Inclusion

    Photo: Malcolm Griffiths

    “Diversity is being asked to the party; inclusion is being invited to dance.” As the tobacco and nicotine products industries undergo a period of transition, leadership needs to change too. During the Women in Tobacco meeting at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) 2021, panelists looked at how diversity and inclusion can contribute to this transformation. “If the industry doesn’t embrace diversity at all levels—not only on the management board—if it doesn’t adapt, then it will sadly shrink and die,” said Nermeen Varawalla, chief medical officer and head of clinical development at pharmaceutical company Atlantic Healthcare. “Within the industry, players who adapt will be the winners and the forerunners.”

    Carlista Moore Conde, group head of new sciences at BAT, left Procter and Gamble after 20 years and joined BAT in order to become part of this transformation process. BAT, she confirmed, was quite serious about change. With these vectors of difference, as she called them, she had to learn how to quickly build familiarity with people that perhaps wouldn’t necessarily interact with someone like her, a female scientist with an African-American background in a leadership role. She found she could solve this issue by being proactive in joining with coworkers and sharing her story as a way to connect.

    Diversity, behavioral scientist and consultant Lawrence Kutner pointed out, often was defined in too narrow terms, referring mostly to the phenotype. However, diversity was about effectiveness, insight, taking advantage about multiple perspectives. “When we use that word, ‘diversity,’ we tend to oversimplify and lose sight of the goal. So that’s one of the things that I, in running organizations, try to consciously avoid.”

    Introducing her new book, Leading with Love—Rehumanizing the Workplace, Karen Blakeley, an independent academic, leadership coach and teacher, said inclusion was about respecting people and caring for them; about seeing people and their motivations; about hearing their perspective and including it into one’s worldview. “If you have tons of diversity and got no inclusion, then nothing is going to change,” she stressed. Organizations should be serving humanity and not the other way around. In the research for her book, Blakeley asked her network to nominate someone who was leading with love. While most people couldn’t think of any example, the few nominees all had “roots, values, mission and purpose.” “It was not about their career and success—they got a ‘why,’ a larger mission.” The trunk, she explained, was character. “Character building is about controlling your own needs. If you have achieved this, leading with love is embodied. You make difficult, brave decisions. You yield power, and everyone who is really interested in creating diverse and inclusive workplaces needs to learn how to use power.”

  • Kingsley Wheaton

    Kingsley Wheaton

    Photo: Malcolm Griffiths

    Tobacco harm reduction (THR) has arrived at a critical stage, according to Kingsley Wheaton, chief marketing officer at BAT. In 2021, some countries banned or heavily restricted reduced-risk products (RRPs) despite the scientific evidence supporting their benefits. If the World Health Organization tries to further choke off the category during its meeting in November, that would seriously undermine progress in RRPs. “THR is neither a battle to be won nor lost; it’s about science, consumer choice and the need for pragmatic solutions,” said Wheaton. “If we fail to come together and find solutions, then there will be no winners. It will be hard to imagine anything more damaging to global THR efforts than further exclusion of these alternative products.”

    While RRPs are not completely risk free, they are far safer than combustible products. About 100 million smokers have already switched to RRPs. Restricting access to RRPs, Wheaton said, was both misguided and repressive. “In light of evidence showing that former smokers might revert to combustible cigarettes, governments should be revoking bans on alternative products, not introducing them,” he noted. “A whole-of-society approach is required.”

    Maximizing the impact of THR requires an evidence-based approach, proportionate regulations, freedom to innovate, engagement in dialogue and communication, and responsible marketing practices, according to Wheaton.

    The impact of THR could be larger still if the scientific community paid serious attention to the potential of RRPs to help adult smokers. Wheaton cited a massive study of BAT’s Glo tobacco-heating product (see “Milestone Study,”. Tobacco Reporter, July 2021), which revealed biomarkers comparable to smoking cessation. Furthermore, clinical modeling data, he said, had shown that by 2100, smoking may lead to 30 million life years lost.

    Wheaton emphasized his company’s commitment to encouraging smokers to switch, stressing BAT’s ambitions to have 50 million consumers for its noncombustible products by 2030. But he was concerned about the high level of misinformation among consumers. Despite the growing body of evidence supporting reduced-risk products, 62 percent of respondents to a 2018 European survey believed that e-cigarettes are more harmful than combustible cigarettes—an increase from 59 percent in 2016. “This is a development that concerns BAT, and it should concern society,” said Wheaton. “While this should be the basis of public health policy discussions, there was a vociferous minority in the public health community that did not believe in THR, causing a detrimental effect on development and ultimately holding back collective progress. “Nowhere in history has exclusion been useful—we need inclusive solutions.”

    The way forward, Wheaton explained, is to continue innovation and create a vaping experience that closely mimics smoking. “Innovation should be fostered and focus on consumers’ needs,” he said.

  • Swedish Match Reports Record Sales

    Swedish Match Reports Record Sales

    Photo: Swedish Match

    Swedish Match released its interim report, showing record sales with year-on-year revenue growth across product segments, despite comparing to a prior year quarter with elevated demand for certain product lines.

    In local currencies, sales increased by 10 percent for the third quarter. Reported sales increased by 9 percent to SEK4.79 billion ($556.8 million).

    The company had record operating profit from product segments in spite of continued ramp-up in spending behind growth opportunities for smoke-free products. In local currencies, operating profit from product segments increased by 2 percent for the third quarter. Reported operating profit from product segments increased by 1 percent to SEK2.1 billion.

    Operating profit amounted to SEK2.08 billion for the third quarter. Profit after tax for the third quarter amounted to SEK1.54 billion. Profit after tax for the third quarter of the prior year included a charge of SEK286 million following an adverse ruling in a tax case.

    On Sept. 14, Swedish Match announced its intention to spin off its U.S. cigar business to shareholders. Subject to various conditions, the separation is expected to be completed during the second half of 2022 at the earliest.

    “I am pleased to report that Swedish Match in the third quarter continued to deliver double-digit revenue growth in local currencies along with improved operating profit compared to the third quarter of the prior year,” said Swedish Match CEO Lars Dahlgren.

    “With continued ramp-up in marketing related activities to support brand building and long-term growth, as well as the elevated demand (brought on by the pandemic) for several product lines in the prior year period, the financial development in the third quarter is a testimony to the strength and potential of our business.”

  • WHO Urged to Embrace Harm Reduction

    WHO Urged to Embrace Harm Reduction

    The ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will operate under conditions of secrecy comparable to those of the U.N. Security Council, according to a new report by the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) titled, Fighting the Last War: The WHO and International Tobacco Control.

    The public and media are banned from attending all but one largely ceremonial opening plenary, yet millions will be affected by the decisions taken at COP9, which is scheduled to take place virtually Nov. 8–13.

    The report contends that current implementation of the FCTC is a global public health failure. In force since 2005, when there were 1.1 billion smokers around the world, the FCTC set out the principles of global tobacco control—to reduce the death and disease caused by smoking. In 2021, however, there are still 1.1 billion smokers worldwide and 8 million smoking-related deaths each year. What’s more, the number of smokers is predicted to rise, and the number of smoking-related deaths is set to top 1 billion this century.

    Change is urgently needed, and harm reduction for tobacco offers the opportunity for that change, according to the GSTHR.

    Fighting the Last War notes that while tobacco control policy has remained frozen in time, innovative noncombustible nicotine technology and supporting evidence have moved forward. Vaping devices, snus, nicotine pouches and heated-tobacco products are significantly safer than cigarettes as they deliver nicotine without combustion, according to the report’s authors. This, they argue, enables people who cannot or do not want to stop using nicotine to quit deadly smoking and switch to less risky products.

    “Just as delegates at COP26 will be discussing the world’s urgent need to stop fossil fuel combustion, the technology is now in place to ensure the end of the age of combustion for tobacco as well,” the GSTHR wrote in a press note. “A number of Parties to the FCTC, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand, have successfully introduced tobacco harm reduction policies alongside their tobacco control regimes and have seen marked decreases in smoking rates.”

    When given accurate information about comparative risk, many smokers switch, the organization notes. Worldwide, the GSTHR estimated in 2020 that 98 million people worldwide were using safer nicotine products.

    The authors also point out that the concept of harm reduction is embedded in the WHO response to drug use and HIV/AIDS. It is explicitly named as the third pillar of tobacco control alongside demand and supply reduction in the FCTC. Yet the WHO has remained implacably opposed to harm reduction for tobacco and is increasingly viewed as having overseen a “mission creep,” which now sees international tobacco control setting its sights on prohibition for nicotine in all its forms.

    “There are concerning signs in published agenda and briefing papers that the FCTC secretariat and leadership continue to urge Parties against increasing access to, or even to prohibit, safer nicotine products,” the GSTHR wrote.

    Fighting the Last War considers the motivations—ideological, financial and historical—that have led to many global tobacco control practitioners becoming so hostile to what others see as the greatest potential public health advance in decades.

    The report argues that Parties to the FCTC need to seize back control of the COP meetings from the FCTC secretariat, which it says has become overly influential with little oversight. FCTC Parties should press for more evidence-based discussions, calling upon the widest breadth of scientific, clinical and epidemiological expertise on safer nicotine products and tobacco harm reduction, according to the authors. “This should include evidence from Parties that have implemented harm reduction policies, those involved in manufacturing safer nicotine products and the lived experience of consumers,” they wrote. “The establishment of a working group on tobacco harm reduction would offer a pragmatic route to move the FCTC toward a tobacco control regime fit for purpose in the 21st century.”

    “As global leaders prepare to make important pledges on climate change under the glare of the media spotlight at COP26, we urge them to demand more from their delegations inside the closed and unscrutinized rooms of COP9,” says Gerry Stimson, director of Knowledge-Action-Change and emeritus professor at Imperial College London. “Every day, more than one billion smokers are being failed by the international tobacco control regime. The age of combustion—for tobacco as for fossil fuels—must end.

    “Tobacco harm reduction offers new routes out for adult smokers. GSTHR estimates suggest that 98 million of them have already switched. At COP9, government delegations must seize back control and prevent the slide into outright nicotine prohibition that would see many return to smoking and many millions more never succeed in quitting.”

    “The fight to reduce eight million smoking-related deaths a year is now being actively undermined by the WHO and the international tobacco control establishment,” said report author Harry Shapiro. “Together, they are fighting the last war against the tobacco industry—to direct attention away from the evidence that safer nicotine products can make a significant contribution to reducing that death toll.”

    “If those who dominate the global tobacco control discourse were truly committed to public health imperatives, harm reduction principles and policies would be front and center,” said Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the Drug Policy Alliance. “This valuable report exposes the ways in which international institutions have turned their backs on scientific evidence and the human and political rights of hundreds of millions of people whose lives might be saved by safer nicotine products.”

    “Fighting the Last War provides an insight into the dark arts of the WHO that many would find breathtaking and incomprehensible,” said Jeannie Cameron from JCIC Consulting. “It shows a concerning difference between the world’s preparations for COP26 on climate change and COP9 on tobacco. Governments need to stand up at COP9 to support tobacco harm reduction against the outdated views of the WHO.”

    The fight to reduce eight million smoking-related deaths a year is now being actively undermined by the WHO and the international tobacco control establishment. Together, they are fighting the last war against the tobacco industry—to direct attention away from the evidence that safer nicotine products can make a significant contribution to reducing that death toll.”

    Harry Shapiro, author, ‘Fighting the Last War’

    “The challenge for lower and middle-income countries while fighting the last war and promoting real tobacco control is about two major issues,” said Nataliia Toropova from Healthy Initiatives. “Firstly, the current provisions of the WHO FCTC have not been properly implemented due to stretched government resources. Thus, smoking cessation programs are nonexistent, and adult smokers feel hopelessly stuck while making their numerous unsuccessful attempts to quit with no medical help or guidance provided. Secondly, the lack of a comprehensive harm reduction strategy is aggravated by a massive misinformation campaign about harm reduction products and a declared war on nicotine. Unless these two issues get tackled, unless the powerful voice of doctors becomes loud and gets heard, unless education and awareness building campaigns take place, no changes will occur, and this last war will be lost.”

  • PMI Creates New Positions to Accelerate its Transformation

    PMI Creates New Positions to Accelerate its Transformation

    Photo: Vitezslav Vylicil

    Philip Morris International is establishing a category management structure for its smoke-free and combustible cigarettes businesses to accelerate the delivery of a smoke-free future. Stefano Volpetti, currently PMI’s chief consumer officer, has been appointed president smoke-free products category & chief consumer officer. Werner Barth, currently PMI’s senior vice president commercial, has been appointed president combustibles category & global combustibles marketing.

    “We are introducing a category management structure to further unlock and enhance PMI’s growth as the company accelerates toward a smoke-free future, ensuring that we remain focused, delivering on what matters, seamlessly—faster, with better quality, and improved cost,” said PMI CEO Jacek Olczak in a statement. “Stefano and Werner are leaders of exceptional caliber, and I have every confidence that they will succeed in their new roles, working closely together to achieve a smoke-free future.”

    “Establishing a global end-to-end category view will be fundamental in further driving our smoke-free products’ growth trajectory, fostering consumer centricity, and leveraging the strengths of our markets and regions as we work together to deliver on our smoke-free future ambitions,” said Volpetti.

    “The new structure will be paramount in achieving our financial and non-financial targets over the next several years, helping us maintain our competitive position in the cigarette market, which in turn best positions us to significantly accelerate our smoke-free journey,” added Barth.

    Establishing a global end-to-end category view will be fundamental in further driving our smoke-free products’ growth trajectory, fostering consumer centricity, and leveraging the strengths of our markets and regions as we work together to deliver on our smoke-free future ambitions.

    Stefano Volpetti

    Both leadership appointments will be effective Nov. 1, 2021. The new category management structure ensures greater end-to-end accountability from development to deployment, with the continued cooperation of relevant functions such as product, life sciences, operations, and IT. Volpetti and Barth will become the strategic owners of each category and will work with the regions and markets to achieve PMI’s business targets. PMI’s six regional presidents will continue to report to the CEO.

    Volpetti is a global leader with consumer expertise and a track record of transforming brands in complex business environments. Volpetti joined PMI in 2019 as chief consumer officer, driving consumer centricity through the function to deliver “fit-for-use” solutions for market deployment that cover the entire realm of the IQOS brand building, innovation, services, and omnichannel experience. Before joining PMI, Volpetti worked at Procter & Gamble for 22 years, where he progressed through various roles with increasing responsibility, including as a vice president and brand franchise leader for a global division with presence in more than 100 markets. He also worked at Luxottica Eyewear as chief marketing officer in 2015, gaining valuable exposure to retail operations.

    The new structure will be paramount in achieving our financial and non-financial targets over the next several years, helping us maintain our competitive position in the cigarette market, which in turn best positions us to significantly accelerate our smoke-free journey.

    Werner Barth

    Barth is a PMI stalwart with a deep knowledge of the business, recognized for his courageous leadership, strategic thinking and broad business expertise. As PMI’s senior vice president, commercial, a position he held since 2018, Barth built a strong downstream organization, instilling consumer centricity and ensuring seamless deployment of products and programs. Barth joined Philip Morris Germany in 1990 as a trainee, and since then has built his career through key assignments. He was appointed director marketing Spain in 2002 and then director sales Germany & Austria in 2004. In 2007, he was appointed managing director Benelux. He was promoted to managing director Germany & Austria in June 2011. In April 2015, Barth was appointed senior vice president marketing & sales.

    Since the launch of PMI’s first smoke-free product IQOS in 2014, the company has made significant progress in reinventing its operating model and expanding its organizational capabilities, while continuing to deliver strong business results. PMI’s smoke-free products are available in 70 markets as of Sept. 30, 2021, and generated approximately 29 percent of the company’s total net revenues in the third quarter. By 2025, PMI aspires to have its smoke-free products available for sale in 100 markets as of year-end and to generate more than half of its total net revenues for the full year.

  • Social Media Asked to Ban Pouch Promotions

    Social Media Asked to Ban Pouch Promotions

    Photo: Julien Eichinger

    Over 100 public health and other organizations, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, have called on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to end the promotion of nicotine pouches on their platforms, including paid influencer promotion.

    In a letter to the CEOs of the respective companies, the organizations urge the social media companies to immediately update their existing advertising policies to prohibit tobacco companies from targeting youth with nicotine pouch advertisements. Content promoting nicotine pouches is not explicitly prohibited by any of the platforms’ current policies, according to the letter.

    “For years, tobacco companies have used social media platforms to advertise highly addictive products to young people,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement. “Social media platforms have a responsibility to protect their users from the predatory marketing tactics of Big Tobacco—it’s time for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to end their complicity in Big Tobacco’s campaign to addict the next generation.”