E-Cigarettes: Philip Morris International

Philip Morris International (PMI) was the last of the international tobacco companies to move into the e-cigarette market. In November 2013, the company announced that it was going to produce its own e-cigarette. By 2019 the company had three e-cigarette brands in its product portfolio, two of which were sold only in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland, and the other only in Spain and Israel.

PMI now routinely describes e-cigarettes as being part of their portfolio of “reduced risk products (RRPs)”, which includes products containing tobacco (see below). In a report to shareholders in April 2019, the company stated that it had spent US$6 billion (GB£4.75 billion) on these types of product since 2008. This figure included “research, product and commercial development, production capacity, scientific substantiation, and studies on adult smoker understanding”, and made up 92% of their “total research and development expense” in 2018. By the end of that year they held 4,600 “RRP related patents worldwide” with over 6,000 pending.

Most of this research and development had been focussed on their heated tobacco products which they “deliberately prioritized”. However, in 2019 PMI stated that they had “not been idle on e-vapour products”, had invested “significantly”, and were “ready to introduce them at scale”.

Background

Licensing Agreement with Altria

In December 2013, PMI signed a contract including a set of licensing, supply and cooperation agreements with Altria.

Under the agreement, PMI gained the right to exclusively sell Altria's e-cigarettes outside the United States (US), and in return Altria gained the right to exclusively sell PMI e-cigarettes in the US. They also agreed to collaborate on obtaining regulatory approval. Since May 2016 the commercialisation of ‘reduced risk products’ in the US has been subject to approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). When announcing the new licensing contract in 2013, PMI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andre Calantzopoulos said:

”PMI firmly believes that reduced-risk tobacco products, as well as e-cigarettes, represent an important step toward achieving the public health goal of harm reduction, a potential paradigm shift for the industry and a significant growth opportunity for the company.”

Working with Altria on Research and Development

In July 2015 PMI and Altria announced that they would be expanding their joint working to research and develop new e-cigarettes, and reaffirmed their collaboration on “regulatory engagement and approval”.

See also: E-Cigarettes: Altria

Concentrated on the UK and Irish E-Cigarette Markets

PMI has mainly targeted the UK and Irish markets with its e-cigarette brands.

Acquired Nicocigs

In June 2014, it bought an independent UK e-cigarette company Nicocigs which at the time had an estimated 27% share of the GB£275 million (US$350 million) UK e-cigarette market. It also began selling its brands Nicolites and Vivid in the UK. In 2016 PMI changed the Nicolites brand name to Nicocig. However by 2019 these products were no longer sold directly; customers were redirected from the Vivid Vapours website to that of an independent retailer, underneath a link to IQOS Mesh (see below).

After buying Nicocig in 2014 PMI claimed to hold the largest share of the UK e-cigarette market. However it appears that each year after that PMI’s e-cigarette brands held a smaller percentage share of an expanding market. According to Euromonitor International, Nicocig’s brand share fell from 7.5% in 2014, to 1.0% in 2017, and Vivid Vapor’s fell from 4.7% to 0.5%. PMI’s total market share in the UK fell from 12.2% in 2014 to 1.7% in 2018. Over the same period the UK e-cigarette market grew in value from nearly GB£440 million to over £1.8 billion, an increase of over 400%.

In September 2014, Nicocigs registered trademarks for a refillable e-cigarette called VYGO, although it did not appear on the market.

While still fragmented, with a large number of independent companies, by 2017 the market leaders in the UK were British American Tobacco brands.

According to Nicocig’s accounts filed at UK Companies House in 2018, the company made a loss of over GB£4.3 million in 2016 and GB£8.8 million in 2017. The accounts also record over GB£14.9 million of “amounts owed to group undertakings”, and state that Nicocigs is a going concern on the assumption of “the continued support of the [sic] its parent company, Philip Morris Holdings B.V.”

In May 2018, PMI announced a contract with Primeline Group. This gave the Irish marketing company distribution and marketing rights for Nicocig and Vivid in Ireland from December of that year.

Selling Altria’s E-Cigarettes

In 2015 PMI started selling Altria’s MarkTen e-cigarette, rebranded as Solaris, in Spain (in March) and Israel (in December). According to Jacek Olczak, at the time PMI’s Chief Financial Officer, “the Solaris brand name conveys a sense of technology and positive energy”. It was not clear whether PMI was intending to wind down production of these brands, but by 2019 the company’s focus appeared to have shifted to its own e-cigarette (see below).

Image 1. IQOS Mesh on sale on the UK IQOS website (screengrab https://uk.iqos.com, June 2019)

Developed IQOS Mesh

By 2016, PMI had developed an e-cigarette called IQOS Mesh. Confusingly, up to the launch of Mesh, the brand name IQOS was associated exclusively with PMI’s heated tobacco products (see below). Following an all-expenses paid pre-launch event for invited “vape insiders” in Neuchatel, Switzerland, IQOS Mesh was first launched in the UK in 2016, but not widely available. After test marketing in London, in July 2018, Mesh went on sale in UK supermarkets (including Sainsbury’s) and petrol station forecourts, as well as IQOS stores.

This e-cigarette is designed to use pre-sealed nicotine cartridges with the brand name VEEV, which come in a range of “gourmet” flavours including, in 2019, “Tobacco Harmony”, “Summer Garden” and “Passion Fruit Zest”, and in three different nicotine levels. Mesh is sold on the IQOS website alongside the company’s heated tobacco products (see image 1). In 2019 the Vivid Vapours website had a prominent redirect to the IQOS site.

There was no specific reference to Mesh sales in publicly available company documents in 2018 or early 2019, except that “initial results were promising”. Therefore it is unclear how important IQOS Mesh is to PMI’s business in comparison to their more widely marketed heated tobacco products. According to Euromonitor, PMI launched this product to “take advantage of the fast-growing non-cig-a-like closed system category in the UK”. Although it had a 0.2% share in 2018 in the UK, it was “virtually non-existent” in terms of the global e-vapour market.

In May 2019, Calantzopoulos revealed, in an interview about IQOS production in Greece, that they planned to roll out sale of IQOS e-cigarettes internationally in 2020, on the back of IQOS heated tobacco products:

“… if we proceed with our entry into the market of conventional vapes, known as electronic cigarettes, under the IQOS trademark – which, by the way, we will start doing gradually at the end of the next year in various international markets – we will be able to do so through our infrastructure and our greater organization that has already been evolved and knows how to do that through IQOS. The initial cost of entry to the market will be much lower for us. So, the profit margins are improved.”

Nicotine Vapour Product: STEEM

In 2018 PMI said it was developing a new nicotine salt e-cigarette called STEEM. Apparently “inspired by technology acquired from Duke University” in 2011. This e-cigarette uses a salt created when ‘freebase’ nicotine is dissolved in acid. This enables higher doses, of more concentrated nicotine, to be consumed.

Euromonitor described STEEM as “virtually non-existent” in the international market in 2018.

E-Cigarettes or Heated Tobacco: Where Does PMI’s Interest Lie?

From 2014 it was clear that, in terms of innovation away from traditional cigarettes, PMI believed its future would lie with Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs), rather than e-cigarettes.

PMI claims that HTP devices heat tobacco enough to release flavour and nicotine, but not enough to catch fire and produce smoke. These products give consumers a stronger and faster kick of nicotine, more like a regular cigarette. However, at the time, Calantzopoulos said that “the current generation of e-cigarettes generally has a much slower delivery profile than conventional cigarettes, which, together with a weaker taste, explains limited user satisfaction and reduced adoption rates”.

In January 2014, PMI announced that it would be investing up to EUR€500 million (US$680 million) in its first “potentially reduced-risk” tobacco products manufacturing facility in Europe, and an associated pilot plant in Italy. Most of this new capacity appeared to be geared towards the production of heated tobacco products. According to Euromonitor, PMI is testing two types of this ‘platform’, one with electronics and one without.

For more information see Heated Tobacco Products.

Joined Vaping Industry Lobbying Organisations

Between 2017 and 2018, PMI became a member of two European vaping industry associations: the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) which lobbies the UK government on vaping regulation, and Vape Business Ireland, which has as similar role in the Republic of Ireland. Nicolites was also listed as a member of Vape Business Ireland.

Both UKVIA and their “partners” Vape Business Ireland were signatories to a document lobbying the World Health Organization (WHO) on e-cigarette regulation in 2018 with the aim of deregulating vaping products and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). For more information see UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).

TobaccoTactics Resources

• E-cigarettes
• E-Cigarettes: Altria
• E-Cigarettes: British American Tobacco
• E-Cigarettes: Japan Tobacco International
• E-Cigarettes: Imperial Tobacco
• JUUL Labs
• Harm Reduction
• Product Innovation