Tag: Philip Morris International

PMI Recognized for ESG Strategy

Photo: patpitchaya
S&P Global Ratings’ ESG Evaluation report has assessed Philip Morris International’s (PMI) approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics and confirmed that PMI has positively differentiated itself within the tobacco sector.
The S&P Global Ratings ESG evaluation assesses a company’s ESG strategy and ability to prepare for potential future risks and opportunities and provides a forward-looking, long-term opinion of a company’s readiness for disruptive ESG risks and opportunities.
It provides an overall score that allows comparison with other entities globally, including sector peers, and consists of a combined sector/region score, an entity-specific score and a preparedness score.
Based on entity-specific scores—designed to indicate how a company is actively and effectively managing its exposure to ESG risks and opportunities compared with its industry peers—PMI is placed third in the E-entity specific score, eighth in the S-entity specific score and 15th in the G-entity specific score among all 25 current publicly available ESG evaluations.
“I am proud that our dedication to sustainability, which is fundamental to the transformation of our company, has been recognized externally by S&P Global Ratings,” said Emmanuel Babeau, chief financial officer at PMI, in a statement.
“It is our firm belief that sustainability and business performance do not follow separate paths—they are fully interrelated and mutually reinforcing and should be organized and presented to all stakeholders, including shareholders, in an integrated way.”

Sustainability and business performance do not follow separate paths—they are fully interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
Emmanuel Babeau, CFO, PMI
In February 2021, PMI announced an increased ambition for the contribution of its smoke-free products to total net revenues to more than 50 percent in 2025, meaning that in five years, cigarettes would account for less than half of PMI’s total net revenues.
The company also stated its aspiration to commercialize its smoke-free products in a total of 100 markets by the end of 2025, up from 64 at the end of 2020. Additionally, PMI announced an aspirational target of at least $1 billion in annual net revenues from “beyond nicotine” products by 2025.
This new aspiration reflects additional growth potential and further acceleration of the company’s transformation, leveraging PMI’s significant capabilities within life sciences, device technology, consumer expertise and more.
“The company has made significant R&D investments, by sector standards, and is upskilling its management team to prepare for this transition. In our view, the company is well placed to meet its ambitions,” S&P Global Ratings said.
“We believe PMI is adequately prepared for future disruptions, reflecting its significant investments in [reduced-risk products (RRPs)], which smokers seem to accept as an alternative to cigarettes, and its solid track record of strategic execution despite headwinds.”
S&P also recognized PMI’s “approach to customer engagement—unique among its peers—which educates consumers directly about the health consequences of sustained tobacco use and supports low-income customers in making the transition from cigarettes to reduced-risk products.”
Later this month, PMI will release its 2020 Integrated Report, which details how the organization’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects create value over the short, medium and long term.
May 17, 2021
FDA Invites Comments on IQOS 3 Application

Photo: Кузнецова Евгения
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today opened a public comment period on Philip Morris International’s application seeking authorization to market the IQOS 3 electrically heated-tobacco system as a modified-risk tobacco product (MRTP).
PMI’s application requests the same reduced exposure modification orders granted on July 7, 2020, for the IQOS 2.4 system—the first, and only, electronic nicotine product to be granted marketing orders through the FDA’s MRTP process. To authorize MRTP consumer communications, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products is required by law to conclude that a product is appropriate to promote the public health.
The IQOS 3 device contains a number of technological advancements compared to the IQOS 2.4 device, including longer battery life and quicker recharge between uses. It was authorized for sale in the U.S. via the FDA’s premarket review process on Dec. 7, 2020, having met the standard that permitting its sale is appropriate to protect public health.

This application underscores PMI’s ongoing commitment to make new innovations available to American adult smokers through the FDA process.
Jacek Olczak, CEO, PMI
“PMI is fully committed to a smoke-free future, one where we completely replace cigarettes with scientifically substantiated smoke-free alternatives that are a better choice for adults who would otherwise continue smoking,” said PMI CEO Jacek Olczak.
“Our commitment to a science-based future is unmatched, having invested more than $8 billion since 2008 on smoke-free products. This application underscores PMI’s ongoing commitment to make new innovations available to American adult smokers through the FDA process; the confidence we have in our science; and our belief that public scrutiny and open engagement with governments is vital to achieving a smoke-free future.”
May 14, 2021
No PMI Cigarettes in Japan Within 10 Years

Photo: beeboys
Philip Morris International (PMI) plans to stop selling cigarettes in Japan within 10 years.
In an interview with Nikkei, Jacek Olczak, who took over as the company’s CEO on May 5, predicted that Japan will become a smoke-free society within 10 years. PMI expects to gradually pull out of combustible tobacco products elsewhere over the next 10 to 15 years, and Olczak said he wants the transition to happen first in Japan.
According to Olczak, the company will be focusing on its heat-not-burn (HnB) products instead. In 2016, PMI began selling its IQOS HnB device nationwide in Japan. The company held a 70 percent share of Japan’s market for such products in 2019, according to Euromonitor International—far ahead of its rivals Japan Tobacco, with 10 percent, and British American Tobacco, with 20 percent.
Smokeless tobacco, which includes HnB and e-cigarettes, made up 11 percent of Philip Morris’ total shipments of 704.6 billion cigarettes in 2020, up 3 percentage points from 2019. The global market for combustible cigarettes has shrunk by just under 10 percent over the past four years.
Smokeless tobacco products are currently sold in 66 countries and regions, and Olczak said he wants to increase that to 100 percent by 2025.
Nearly 30 percent of all Japanese tobacco sales are now heated products. Part of their success is due to the country’s ban on e-cigarettes sales and its comparatively accommodative regulatory framework.
When Japan last year prohibited smoking in restaurants, it made an exception for HnB products, which can be consumed while eating or drinking if certain conditions are met, such as having ventilation equipment in place.
In 2019, tobacco companies sold 118.1 billion cigarettes in Japan, around one-third of the peak in 1996.

Jacek Olczak
Olczak said Philip Morris would introduce devices that use new technologies and consider expanding the functionality of heated devices. In addition to providing an age verification function to prevent minors from smoking, the company will also begin developing an application to help smokers manage their health.
Philip Morris’ sales for the fiscal year ended December 2020 totaled $28.6 billion, down 4 percent from the previous year, while its net profit reached $8 billion, up 12 percent.
May 7, 2021
PMI appoints Jacek Olczak as CEO

Jacek Olczak (Photo: PMI)
Philip Morris International (PMI) appointed Jacek Olczak as CEO following the company’s 2021 annual shareholders meeting on May 5. Most recently the company’s chief operating officer, Olczak was also elected to the board of directors. Andre Calantzopoulos, who served as PMI’s CEO from 2013, was appointed executive chairman of the board prior to the meeting. Lucio Noto stepped down from his role as interim chairman of the board and was reelected to the board of directors.
In accepting his appointment as CEO, Olczak committed to accelerating PMI’s smoke-free transformation, announced in 2016. The company says it is focused on developing, scientifically substantiating and responsibly commercializing smoke-free products that are less harmful than smoking, with the aim of replacing cigarettes as soon as possible.
“I am humbled and excited to lead PMI as we accelerate our transformation into a smoke-free company,” said Olczak in a statement. “PMI is an industry leader in scientific innovation, and our ambition is that more than half of our net revenues will come from smoke-free products in 2025. Our evolving portfolio will drive our long-term future. We will lean into our scientific research and expertise, using our collective skills and imagination to innovate beyond our existing portfolio and explore new areas of business development.”
We will lean into our scientific research and expertise, using our collective skills and imagination to innovate beyond our existing portfolio.
Jacek Olczak, CEO, PMI
Olczak began his career with PMI in 1993. He started in finance and general management positions across Europe, including as managing director of PMI’s markets in Poland and Germany and as president of the European Union region, before being appointed chief financial officer in 2012. He held that position until 2018, when he became PMI’s chief operating officer. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Lodz, Poland.
Olczak has been a vital driver of PMI’s smoke-free transformation, which moved into its commercialization phase with the launch of IQOS in Nagoya, Japan, in 2014. Under his oversight as chief operating officer, PMI increased the portion of its net revenues derived from smoke-free products to 28 percent in the first quarter of 2021. Further, the company grew the geographical coverage of its smoke-free products from zero to 66 markets in key cities or nationwide as of March 31, 2021. And Olczak led PMI’s commercial transformation, successfully developing it from a primarily business-to-business company to an increasingly business-to-consumer company.

Jacek is ideally placed to deliver PMI’s smoke-free vision in his new role as CEO.
Andre Calantzopoulos, executive chairman, PMI
“Jacek is ideally placed to deliver PMI’s smoke-free vision in his new role as CEO,” said Calantzopoulos. “His passion for the company and our employees underpins his drive for results, as does his deep knowledge of our products, systems, values and investors. I believe he is the ideal leader to ensure our business’ continued growth and deliver shareholder value. I look forward to continuing to work with him in my new capacity as executive chairman of the board.”
Approximately 85 percent of the shares entitled to vote were represented at the meeting in person or by proxy. The shareholders elected 13 nominees for director; approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of named executive officers; and ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent auditors.
May 6, 2021
RJR Challenges Philip Morris Vapor Patent

Image: USPTO
R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) has petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a review of six claims relating to the basic functionality of e-cigarettes in a patent assigned to Philip Morris Products, reports Law Street Media.
RJRV argues that the patent describes an approach that dates from 1990 and has “become accepted in view of its comparatively easy technical realizability in combination with its convincing functionality.”
According to the filing, there are disadvantages in the prior technology that the asserted patent claims to fix, such as the increasing contamination of the vaporizing unit throughout its life, a fluid leak and that due to its design, the e-cigarette’s length cannot be shortened.
RJRV takes issue with the patent’s six claims on the basis that to a person having ordinary skill in the field, it would have been obvious to combine previous inventions to overcome the claimed deficiencies.
RJRV requests the cancellation of the claims as unpatentable.
It’s not the first time that Reynolds and Philip Morris have quarreled about intellectual property. In June 2020, Philip Morris International filed counterclaims against Reynolds for patent infringement in the federal court action that RJR commenced against PMI and Altria, PMI’s IQOS distributor in the U.S., on April 9, 2020 in the Eastern District of Virginia.
April 22, 2021
Higher Revenues, Lower Volumes for PMI

Photo: PMI
Philip Morris International (PMI) reported net revenues of $7.59 billion in the first quarter of 2021, up from $7.15 billion in the comparable 2020 quarter. Operating income was $3.44 billion compared with $2.79 billion in the prior year period. Adjusted operating income amounted to $3.49 billion, up 25.2 percent from the 2020 quarter. PMI reported an adjusted operating income margin of 46 percent in the first quarter of 2021.
The company shipped 167.25 billion cigarettes and heated-tobacco units in the first quarter of 2021, down 3.7 percent from the volume shipped in the first quarter of 2021. Heated-tobacco unit shipments increased 29.9 percent to 21.73 billion from quarter to quarter, while cigarette shipments declined 7.3 percent to 145.51 billion between the reporting periods.

We are pleased to have delivered a very strong start to the year, with top- and bottom-line results coming in well ahead of our expectations.
Andre Calantzopoulos, CEO, PMI
“We are pleased to have delivered a very strong start to the year, with top- and bottom-line results coming in well ahead of our expectations for the first quarter despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic,” said PMI CEO Andre Calantzopoulos in a statement.
“This performance was driven by the continued strength of IQOS, in particular, reflecting excellent user, volume and market share momentum as well as further progress with manufacturing and operating cost efficiencies. Our results also benefited from the timing of specific factors, notably associated with shipments in certain markets and the phasing of commercial investments, which are expected to partially reverse in the second quarter.”
“While the speed and shape of the global recovery from the pandemic remains uncertain, we are raising our full-year outlook, on an underlying basis, to reflect the strong results and positive momentum of the first quarter. Our guidance now represents organic adjusted diluted EPS growth of 11 percent to 13 percent, reflecting net revenue growth of 5 percent to 7 percent on the same basis.”
April 20, 2021
Tectonic Shift

Photos: PMI
By 2025, smoke-free products could contribute more than 50 percent to Philip Morris International’s total net revenues.
By Stefanie Rossel
Five years ago, Philip Morris International (PMI) announced its ambition for a smoke-free future, based on the development and commercialization of smoke-free products that are less hazardous than combustible cigarettes. During its virtual Investor Day conference on Feb. 10, 2021, PMI provided an update on its progress and revealed new targets. By 2025, PMI aims to derive more than 50 percent of its net revenues from smoke-free products, up from 24 percent in 2020.
IQOS Iluma, the next generation of its IQOS heated-tobacco product (HTP), is supposed to play a major role in the company’s transformation. The device comes with a new internal heating technology based on induction and will be launched in the second half of this year. “IQOS Iluma is simple and intuitive,” explained PMI’s Chief Operating Officer Jacek Olczak. “It self-activates and requires less explanation, which will save time and cost of acquisition as well as aftercare and retention. It supports easier switching and higher conversion for legal-age smokers.”
With the new heating system, PMI addresses consumer feedback on the heating technology of its successful IQOS tobacco heating device. Some consumers reported breaking blades.
The Iluma will be available in three designs at three price points. Next to a super-premium version, there will be a variant that corresponds to the present IQOS model 3.1 and more affordable version. For the time being, Olczak said, PMI will maintain IQOS with both the blade and the induction technologies on the market.
“Higher loyalty to the new products will drive consumers to conversion. Requiring less infrastructure, Iluma will enable more access to geographically remote areas,” said Olczak. Iluma will be introduced with a new broad range of consumables; the tobacco sticks of blade and induction technology devices cannot be interchanged.
In the five years since PMI announced its smoke-free ambition, the company has created an entire new product category. As of December 2020, IQOS had 17.6 million users, of which 12.7 million had switched from cigarettes and stopped smoking, according to PMI’s CEO Andre Calantzopoulos. The product is present in 64 markets, a reach planned to be expanded to 100 in the next five years. It also has an 80 percent segment share. According to PMI, IQOS is the world’s No. 1 smoke-free brand and No. 5 nicotine brand. In IQOS markets, the product is the third largest brand behind Marlboro and Winston. IQOS generated net revenues of $6.8 billion in 2020. To date, PMI has invested $8.1 billion PMI in developing reduced-risk products. IQOS has remained remarkably resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic, Calantzopoulos said. In 2020, 76 billion heated-tobacco units (HTUs) were shipped, an amount that is targeted to reach 140 billion to 160 billion in the 2021–2023 period.

Jacek Olczak
Exceptional growth expected
Calantzopoulos anticipates a decline of total nicotine industry volume of 1 percent to 2 percent over 2021 to 2023, but a clear transition to nicotine smoke-free products. He expects the share of combustible cigarettes and other tobacco products (OTP) to decrease from 94 percent in 2020 to 90 percent by 2023, whereas smoke-free products (HTP, e-vapor and nicotine pouches) are estimated to grow from 6 percent to 10 percent over the same period. The HTP category alone, which had a volume share of 3 percent last year, is forecast to account for 7 percent by 2023, assuming the same regulatory conditions as for combustible cigarettes.
In 2020, the retail value of the global nicotine industry stood at around $450 billion. Of that, cigarettes and OTP represented 94 percent, HTP 4.5 percent, vapor products 1.6 percent and nicotine pouches 0.1 percent. Over the next four years to five years, Calantzopoulos expects value compound annual growth rates of roughly 4 percent for the total industry but 25 percent for HTP and 10 percent to 15 percent for vapor products.
Opportunity for IQOS remains vast. “There are 150 million addressable users in current markets and around 600 total international potential users excluding China and the U.S.,” said Calantzopoulos. Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are considered sizeable geographies with potential for IQOS. The U.S. market, where IQOS was authorized as a modified-risk tobacco product by the Food and Drug Administration in July 2020, also holds great promise for the company. “There is high consumer interest in smoke-free alternatives,” Olczak explained, “and a rational and robust regulatory environment for building awareness.” Commercialization of IQOS in the U.S. is supposed to start in early 2021.
“Reduced-risk products (RRPs) are a different business,” said Calantzopoulos, describing PMI’s learning curve. “Their complexity is much higher than that of combustible cigarettes.” Apart from the different manufacturing and supply chain, operating in an uncharted regulatory landscape, the need to build new brand equity and for high conversion for harm reduction and gaining scale, he mentioned a new consumer “journey,” which drives development and commercialization and route-to-market, high upfront investment for meaningful entry and new organizational skills and ways of working. Rewards, though, were also higher, he added. Next to the positive public health impact, RRPs come with higher profitability. This is especially true for IQOS: Its margin is about 2.4 times that of combustible cigarettes and approximately five times that of closed-system vapor products, according to the company’s chief financial officer, Emmanuel Babeau.

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IQOS as an umbrella brand
Over the midterm, the company says it might need two to three technologies and respective consumable offers to cover the full spectrum of consumer price segments. As a premium brand, IQOS can be stretched over two price segments as in Japan. To cover three to five price points in certain markets, further offerings and partnerships will be required.
IQOS is supposed to become the umbrella brand in a consumption environment characterized by poly-use, Olczak pointed out. In the combined markets of the U.K., Germany, Japan and Russia, combustible cigarettes were consumed by 66 percent, vapor products by 7 percent and HTPs by 8 percent of nicotine users in 2019. But there were overlaps: Of the smokers, 4 percent also used HTPs and 7 percent also used vape products. Triple use was observed in 7 percent. “We will move from single to multi-focus, with IQOS addressing a range of consumer preferences,” Olczak said. In the future, the company forecasts, consumers will increasingly use different smoke-free products in parallel.
The second new product launch this year will hence be a vapor product called IQOS Veev. Based on the company’s Mesh technology, which uses a metallic mesh with tiny holes to heat e-liquid in a pre-filled, pre-sealed pod, the product will initially be introduced in more than 20 markets. “Closed system users mean better economics for the manufacturer,” Olczak stated. “The e-vapor category is growing and consolidating. The expected increase in users over the next five years will be 7 [percent] to 10 percent, albeit concentrated in specific geographies. For existing business models, returns remain low—there is low conversion to the category, low loyalty within the category, and a high number of devices per user driving up acquisition and retention cost.”
PMI seeks to enter the market from a different angle, Olczak added, by leveraging the IQOS infrastructure with a bespoke route-to-market approach. Veev will be a premium product coming with a new age verification technology that presently is in the final stages of testing.

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Beyond nicotine
PMI is also eying the nicotine pouch category, a small but growing segment with a market size of 5 billion stick equivalents in 2020. With new consumer tests, the company will develop its platform 2, a THP closest to the combustible cigarette ritual and experience, further this year. Platform 3, an electronics-free nicotine product, is supposed to be commercialized within the next three years.
To accelerate smoking cessation, Calanzopoulos called for differentiated regulatory frameworks taking the differing levels of harm of nicotine products into account. “We must stop debating whether RRPs should be made available, but how fast and how best to help the men and women who would otherwise continue smoking,” he said. “With the right regulatory frameworks, dialogue and support from civil society, cigarette sales can end within 10 [years] to 15 years in many countries.”
To refinance its RRP investments, PMI intends to achieve around $2 billion in annualized gross cost efficiencies by 2023 compared to the 2020 cost base. The company will continue to use the revenues from its combustible cigarette business to support its smoke-free expansion. In 2020, PMI generated net revenues of $28.69 billion ($29.81 billion in 2019), of which combustible cigarettes accounted for the lion’s share.
Excluding China and the U.S., the global cigarette market decreased by 6.7 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, PMI estimates. In IQOS markets, the decrease even amounted to 9.1 percent. “The reduction of social smoking moments during the height of Covid-19 restrictions has led to consumption loss, which put Marlboro under pressure in 2002 while our other brands performed well,” Olczak pointed out. The temporary loss of duty-free due to reduced air travel contributed to the overall category decline. “But consumption will come back once we return to our pre-Covid-19 daily routines,” said Olczak. Although impacted by the pandemic, the company continued to lead the global cigarette market excluding China with a share of 25.7 percent, down from 26.9 percent one year previously. The downtrading trend continued last year, with the majority being from mid-priced brands to low-priced and super-low-priced products.
PMI predicts a further annual drop in global consumption outside China and the U.S. of 3 percent to 4 percent between 2021 and 2023. The company, however, already has plans to go beyond nicotine: It intends to employ its newly won expertise in life sciences, inhalation technology and natural ingredients to explore and develop botanicals and respiratory drug delivery, the market sizes of which PMI estimates at $29 billion and $36 billion by 2025, respectively. If its up to PMI, “beyond nicotine” products will contribute at least $1 billion to the company’s net revenues by that time.
Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.

April 1, 2021
PMI Nominates New Board Members

Photo: PMI
Philip Morris International’s (PMI) board of directors has nominated two new members, Juan José Daboub and Shlomo Yanai. Additionally, Jacek Olczak has been nominated to the board following the announcement of his appointment as CEO, a role he will assume immediately following the annual shareholders meeting on May 5.
Daboub started his career as an engineer before moving into government. In 1999, he was the youngest senior cabinet member in El Salvador, serving first as chief of staff to the president and then as minister of finance. Later, as a managing director at the World Bank Group, he was credited with having driven several corporate initiatives and reforms, including leading the institution’s global agenda on governance and anti-corruption.
Over the past decade, Daboub has focused on climate adaptation and energy transition through public and private investment vehicles and not-for-profit organizations, including as chair of the Council on Climate Change at the World Economic Forum and founding CEO of the Global Adaptation Institute. He is currently president of The Daboub Partnership and of ThinkHUGE USA-Central America Job Creation Council.

José’s experience across multiple business sectors, combined with his deep understanding of geopolitics and international institutions, will be a great addition to the PMI board.
Lucio Noto, interim chairman, PMI
“Juan José fully embraces PMI’s commitment to delivering a smoke-free future,” said Lucio Noto, PMI’s interim chairman, in a statement. “José’s experience across multiple business sectors, combined with his deep understanding of geopolitics and international institutions, will be a great addition to the PMI board.”
Yanai was president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries from 2007 to 2012. In that time, he led the company’s international expansion and increased annual revenues by nearly $10 billion. Prior to that, Yanai was president and CEO of ADAMA for three years. His time at those organizations and later as a board member or chair of several other companies in the pharma space, as well as his current position as chairman of the board of Lumenis, a medical devices company, have given Yanai a solid understanding of the science behind drug discovery, development and regulation. He served in the Israeli Defense Forces for more than 30 years, reaching the rank of major general. In his military career, Yanai worked extensively with politicians and public sector bodies.
“The combination of Shlomo’s broad board experience and his knowledge of the pharma industry and its regulatory processes will bring to the board an extremely relevant set of skills as PMI continues to develop and commercialize scientifically validated smoke-free products and starts deploying its beyond nicotine strategy,” said Noto.
The nominations announced today follow the appointments of Michel Combes and Bonin Bough to the board of directors in December 2020 and February 2021, respectively. Combes is president of SoftBank Group International and oversees several SoftBank portfolio companies. He was chief financial officer and then CEO and a member of the board of directors of Sprint, CEO of Vodafone Europe, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, CEO and chief operating officer of Altice, and chairman and CEO of SFR Group.
March 26, 2021
U.K. High Court Revokes BAT Patents

Photo: Oliver Le Moal
The U.K. high court has revoked two British American Tobacco (BAT) e-cigarette patents, reports World Intellectual Property Review. In doing so, the court dismissed BAT’s claim that Philip Morris International (PMI) infringed on the patents with its IQOS tobacco-heating product line.
Justice Richard Meade on March 9 concluded that the BAT patents lack an “inventive step” over PMI’s patent.
One of the BAT patents, EP 3 398 460 B1, covers an “aerosol-generating device with housing and a cigarette” whereas the other, EP3491944, refers to a cigarette “for use with” an aerosol-generating device.
Meade argued the patents merely covered a method of getting reconstituted tobacco into a cigarette form, and all methods of which—including rolling, gathering a sheet or cutting—were limited and would be obvious to a skilled team.
Both patents were found invalid for added matter and obviousness. However, Meade also concluded that, if the patents were valid, PMI’s IQOS products would have infringed them.
The tobacco giants have been quarreling over intellectual property for several years.
In 2018, PMI filed a complaint against BAT’s heated-tobacco products in Japan. PMI alleged that some technological features of BAT’s Glo device infringed on two of PMI’s Japanese patents.
In May 2020, BAT’s R.J. Reynolds subsidiary filed a lawsuit against PMI in the U.S. and Germany claiming that the IQOS tobacco-heating technology infringed patents for Reynolds’ Vuse vaping system.
In June 2020, PMI filed counterclaims, arguing that R.J. Reynolds’ vapor products infringed multiple patents owned by PMI and its U.S. partners, Altria Client Services and Philip Morris USA.
The patents are also currently in dispute in Munich.
March 11, 2021
PMI Launches Inclusivity Initiative

Sikle Muenster (Photo: PMI)
Philip Morris International (PMI) has launched a year-long research and convening initiative titled “Inclusive Future.” The initiative will explore best practices and established thought leadership to advance the discourse surrounding inclusivity and devise effective and timely ways to promote inclusive cultures.
“Measuring diversity is the easy part. Measuring and understanding inclusivity is far more complex as we discovered through trialing inclusivity measurement efforts at PMI,” says Silke Muenster, chief diversity officer at PMI, in a statement.
“While established frameworks, language and tools exist for measuring inclusivity today, it is clear that they are far from adequate. In the context of a world that shifted radically in 2020, this new initiative will help us to develop compelling ways to further inclusion within the PMI global organization and, we hope, beyond our walls as well.”
The Inclusive Future work will unfold in phases over the next 12 months, starting with a quantitative and qualitative exploration of the state of inclusion today. This facet of the study will feature a year-long research partnership with the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, to study how inclusion is currently measured and how this should evolve to drive impact. This will culminate in the publication of the Inclusive Future study results in March 2022.
As part of the initiative launch, Muenster will participate in a virtual event on International Women’s Day hosted by flagship SHE media site BlogHer alongside other female change makers dedicated to advancing economic empowerment for women everywhere. She will also speak on a high-level panel at the Gender Summit on March 10.
March 8, 2021