The Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is urging tobacco companies to manufacture their heated tobacco products in the country, citing surging domestic demand and export opportunities, according to the Philippine News Agency.
During the International Tobacco Agriculture Summit in Taguig City on Aug. 2, DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said while local demand for cigarettes is expected to decline from 49.61 billion sticks in 2022 to 39.06 billion sticks in 2027, sales of HTPs are poised to increase significantly during that period.
He cited a Euromonitor predicting HTP retail sales of HTPs to surge by 511 percent to 4.06 billion sticks in 2027.
Rodolfo said HTP producers would benefit the Philippines’ free trade agreements with regional markets. “HTPs, if manufactured in the Philippines, can be imported in ASEAN (except Vietnam), Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong at zero percent tariff duty,” he was quoted as saying.
In 2022, the top destinations for Philippine tobacco products included South Korea at $102.2 million, Thailand ($98.29 million) and Myanmar at $49.4 million.
According to Rodolfo, Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco aims to build a PHP9-billion factory in Tanauan, Batangas, for the production of IQOS devices.
Individuals visiting Taiwan who bring heated tobacco products into the country could be subject to a maximum fine of NT$5 million ($161,186), the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) warned Tuesday.
The fine will be imposed whether the products are brought in for the traveler’s own recreational use or were bought on behalf of somebody else, the HPA said in a statement.
Under a revision of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act that took effect in March, new tobacco products, such as heat-not-burn (HnB) or heated tobacco products (HTPs), and the components necessary for their use, are banned in Taiwan unless they have been approved after a health risk assessment by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), according to Focus Taiwan.
Only if they are approved can they be manufactured or imported, the HPA said. To date, no HTP has been approved by the MOHW, according to the health promotion body.
Liu Chia-hsiu, an official with the HPA’s Tobacco Control Division, said the manufacture, import, sale, supply, display, advertising and use of designated tobacco products that have not been approved could be subject to a fine of up to NT$50 million.
The fine for bringing heated tobacco products into the country is between NT$50,000 and NT$5 million, Liu said, while the penalty for those caught using them is NT$2,000 to NT$10,000.
Japan Tobacco will invest ¥300 billion ($2.25 billion) in its tobacco-heating products (THPs), with ¥200 billion designated for marketing the sticks internationally, reports Nikkei Asia
“Last year, we couldn’t make the investment because there were not enough [heated-tobacco] devices due to the semiconductor shortage,” Japan Tobacco President Masamichi Terabatake was quoted as saying. “For 2023, we are back on track for procurements, and we are able to secure more than twice Japan’s supply volume compared to last year.”
JT plans to roll out its Ploom X THP in more than 10 countries this year, reaching at least 20 new countries by the end of 2024. Currently available only in Japan and the U.K., the product is set to debut in Italy this month.
To gain name recognition, JT will invest in pop-up shops and digital sales. It will develop flavors that match the tastes of each market.
In the U.S., JT formed a joint venture with Altria Group. The partners will seek permission from the Food and Drug Administration to market Ploom by early 2025.
While JT’s THP segment is currently in the red due to the forward investments, the company anticipates turning a profit in 2028 on overseas growth.
JT will also invest in research and development, looking to develop the second generation and third generation of Ploom X devices.
Global sales volume for cigarettes shrank 1.5 percent last year, JT said. By contrast, the global market for THPs last year grew 17 percent to $33.4 billion, according to Euromonitor International.
Imperial Brands has launched the first all-new upgrade of its Pulze heated tobacco device, as it continues to innovate to create more compelling, potentially reduced harm products.
Pulze 2.0 offers new levels of convenience with a compact all-in-one design and 25 or more sessions from a single charge.
Paired with Imperial’s iD sticks now available in 10 different flavors, Pulze offers an attractive, potentially less risky alternative to consumers seeking to switch away from combustible cigarettes, according to Imperial.
“Our consumer-centric approach to innovation is accelerating the pace of development across all categories,” said Andy Dasgupta, Imperial Brands’ chief consumer officer, in a statement. “Pulze 2.0 is another important milestone on Imperial’s journey to build a healthier future and offers consumers alternative ways to enjoy moments of relaxation and pleasure.”
Heated tobacco devices such as Pulze release nicotine and tobacco aromas without burning and producing smoke. This means that aerosols produced by Pulze contain substantially lower levels of harmful chemicals than those found in cigarette smoke, research shows.
Pulze 2.0 is being launched initially in four markets—Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Greece—and will be rolled out more widely across Imperial’s heated tobacco footprint in Europe during the remainder of 2023.
Heated tobacco forms part of Imperial’s multi-category approach to building a strong, focused next generation products business. The company has also recently unveiled major product innovations in vape, with the new Blu 2.0 and Blu bar devices, and modern oral with nine new varieties of its fast-growing Zone X brand.
The launch of Pulze 2.0 comes as Imperial CEO Stefan Bomhard and CFO Lukas Paravicini today present on the progress of the business’ transformation at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference in Boca Raton, Florida, USA.
The presentation by Bomhard and Paravicini starts at 4 pm EST. Participants can register here.
About 2 million smokers in Italy have switched to IQOS, reports Breaking Latest News, citing a Philip Morris International representative.
“We are moving forward at increasing speed toward our goal of building a cigarette-free future by making available to adult smokers who continue to quit the best technologies made possible by years of research and development,” said Marco Hannappel, president of Southwestern Europe at PMI.
“Today, on the one hand, we are celebrating an important result: Around 2 million smokers in Italy have switched to a valid alternative without combustion and have completely abandoned cigarettes; on the other, we relaunch our commitment thanks to a new technology, designed to further simplify the transition of smokers who are more resistant to change.”
PMI recently introduced IQOS Iluma One on the Italian market.
“At the end of December, thanks to the introduction of IQOS Iluma, we saw an increase in smokers switching to IQOS for exclusive use, i.e., completely abandoning traditional smoking,” said Gianluca Iannelli, head of marketing and digital at Philip Morris Italy. “With IQOS Iluma One, we aim to convince even the most resistant smokers to change their lifestyle, thanks to an even simpler and more intuitive device.”
Philip Morris International has introduced its IQOS Iluma One in South Korea, reports The Korea Times. The launch comes three months after the debut of IQOS Iluma and IQOS Iluma Prime models in the country.
According to Philip Morris Korea Managing Director Paik Young-jae, the launch of ILUMA One completes the Iluma platform family.
“The first two ILUMA models have received a good response from the market and if this continues, I am hoping that we will reclaim the leading position in the e-cigarette market here,” Paik said.
Since the launch of the IQOS device in 2017, Philip Morris Korea had maintained the No.1 spot in the domestic heat-not-burn for five years. However, in the first quarter of 2022, KT&G took over market leadership in the first quarter of last year.
IQOS Iluma One retails in South Korea for KRW69,000 ($54.74), which is about 30 percent cheaper than the IQOS Iluma.
The new device is made with an all-in-one lightweight design that can be held in one hand. A single charge can be used to smoke 20 tobacco sticks.
Like other IQOS ILUMA models, the IQOS ILUMA ONE uses “Terea Smartcore” sticks, which heat tobacco with an induction system adopted inside its body so that users don’t have to clean any residue afterward.
New data from Philip Morris Limited (PML) shows that retailers should stay stocked up on the latest technology advancements in next-generation nicotine products to keep ahead of growing consumer demand.
Kate O’Dowd, head of commercial planning UK & Ireland at PML, said that data shows that store owner competition in the heat-not-burn category is shifting the landscape, by challenging the dominance of traditional categories (such as e-cigarettes) and accelerating the pace of change.
“The race to switch adult smokers to alternative products between convenience retailers and large multiples, and the speed with which manufacturers and their brands are developing and commercializing the most innovative products to meet growing demand show everyone is feeling the heat,” she said. “For instance, if we look at heat-not-burn – a relative newcomer to the U.K. market – we see a category growing at over twice the speed of the e-cigarette category, which launched at least a decade earlier.”
O’Dowd cited data from PML’s first quarter results that found that the firm’s HEETS tobacco sticks accounted for more than 6 percent of the market share of the total industry sales volume for heated tobacco units.
PML also recently commissioned a survey, which included more than 1400 convenience retailers, to find whether retailers would forego competing with other stores if it meant they could help their community to make the swap to smoke-free options.
More than two-thirds of the respondents to the survey said they would look beyond competition with other stores to work together to help their community to go smoke-free.
Aiming to push this potential of the heat-not-burn subcategory further, PML recently rolled out its new IQOS Originals Duo heat-not-burn product, an advancement to its previous IQOS 3 Duo, the comapny said. The new device comes in a kit with a compact, lightweight holder and two packs of HEETS at an RRP of £39.
The IQOS heat-not-burn brand remains one of the most popular products in the category.
By Norm Bour
For those who have been in the nicotine industry for more than a few years, the IQOS saga is an amazing story of the ups and downs and volatility of the vapor market. If there is a real-life example of a “killer app,” IQOS changed the direction of vaping and introduced the concept of “heat-not-burn.”
First launched in Italy and Japan in 2016, IQOS was initially shot down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has been the regulatory agency’s tendency since it received the authority to regulate vaping products. Since the FDA started soliciting and accepting premarket tobacco product applications, a long and arduous approval process, it has approved just a handful of products and cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours of legal work and accounting.
IQOS didn’t find the process any easier.
Owned by Philip Morris International, which has billions of dollars to spend on new technologies and employs who knows how many well-connected lobbyists, none of that made a difference. Since the company has an international footprint, PMI could focus on greener pastures and jurisdictions with less challenging regulations, so the company put its efforts on “testing” IQOS outside the U.S., where it was generally well received.
PMI built its first factory in Italy, and after the initial tests in Italy and Japan proved successful, it introduced IQOS in the U.K. Over the years, PMI has partnered with several international companies and marketed IQOS under a variety of names. However, the U.S. market proved to be more challenging.
In 2020, however, the FDA agreed that IQOS “significantly reduces exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals,” and PMI launched the product in the U.S. that year. After launching IQOS in a handful of states and gaining a single-digit share of the overall market, PMI suddenly found the door slammed shut on IQOS by a copyright infringement claim by BAT, the U.K.-based parent company of Reynolds American Inc (RAI).
In September 2021, the International Trade Commission (ITC) upheld an initial determination from May 2021 that IQOS infringed on two RAI patents. The ITC barred PMI’s then-partner, Altria Group, from importing PMI’s IQOS 2.4, IQOS 3 and IQOS 3 Duo products into the U.S.
Following the ITC ruling, PMI stated, “At the present time, we do not expect to have access to IQOS devices or Marlboro HeatSticks in 2022. However, we remain focused on returning IQOS to the market as soon as possible. Our teams are actively working on reentry plans, and we expect to be ready to bring IQOS back to U.S. consumers when available.”
In order to get its tobacco-heating device back on U.S. store shelves, in early 2022 PMI announced its plans to manufacture IQOS in the United States. In October 2022, PMI agreed to pay Altria Group approximately $2.7 billion for the exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to the IQOS tobacco-heating system effective April 20, 2024.
“We remain committed to creating long-term value through our vision,” said Altria CEO Billy Gifford in a statement. “We believe that this agreement provides us with fair compensation and greater flexibility to allocate resources toward ‘moving beyond smoking.’”
In an interview with Bloomberg, PMI CEO Jacek Olczak said the company had planned to manufacture IQOS in the U.S. all along. “From the very beginning of us going to the FDA, we had in mind that IQOS would one day not only be sold in the U.S. but manufactured there, if you take into consideration the size of the market and the opportunity for IQOS,” he said. “It’s just happening sooner because of the ITC decision.”
In July 2020, the FDA authorized PMI and Altria to market IQOS with certain modified-exposure claims, giving the company a leg up over its rivals. PMI has not specified where it will be manufacturing IQOS but said it plans to sell IQOS in the U.S. again in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, overseas, specifically in Europe, IQOS stores are some of the most beautifully designed tobacco shops in the world. The products are available in 68 international markets, and PMI claims that “13.5 million adult smokers have made the switch from tobacco.”
PMI’s heated-tobacco products (HTPs) have been launched in key cities in Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Canary Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, and in some duty-free shops.
PMI has marketed several HTPs under its IQOS brand, and the most popular versions today use “blade heating technology,” a proprietary system for its HEETS, or HeatSticks. That overall methodology encompasses several versions of IQOS.
The latest generation of IQOS, ILUMA, was released in 2021 and uses induction to heat the tobacco instead of the blade technology and requires no cleaning. These devices use specific heated-tobacco units called Terea Smartcore Sticks.
In 2022, PMI launched Bonds by IQOS, along with its compatible tobacco sticks, Blends, in a pilot market in the Philippines. The company intends to further commercialize the product into 2023. Equipped with “bladeless” resistive external heating technology, Bond emits 95 percent less harmful chemicals compared to cigarettes, according to PMI.
“Bonds by IQOS represents another step forward in our ambition to replace cigarettes with innovative, science-based, smoke-free alternatives,” said Olczak. “We know that no single smoke-free product will appeal to all adult smokers. Providing a range of alternatives to continued smoking—with a variety of taste, technology, usage and price options—is imperative and helps us to address a range of preferences as diverse as adult smokers themselves—ultimately encouraging them to leave cigarettes behind.”
PMI’s ambition is that by 2025 at least 40 million PMI cigarette smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke will have switched to smoke-free products. Furthermore, the company’s aim is that more than half of its net revenues will come from smoke-free products by 2025.
In 2018, IQOS opened its first “boutique store” in one of the most fashionable, popular areas of Sofia, Bulgaria.
“I’ve been here since we opened, and it was a madhouse back then,” said the store manager, who asked to remain unnamed. “Many smokers, and even nonsmokers, had heard about the innovative smoking products and were looking for ways to quit smoking. Here in Bulgaria, we have the worse percentage of smokers in all of Europe, and even though it’s dropped, the numbers are between 30 [percent and] 40 percent depending upon age segmentation.
“Even now, four years later, many tourists visiting this area are shocked to find a store like this. Most of them are current or past smokers and are used to seeing small, ugly tobacco shops, so seeing such a classy place as this excites them.”
In November 2002, PMI launched its IQOS Iluma Prime at Dubai Duty Free. The appearance of IQOS Iluma Prime in Dubai International Airport terminals 1 and 3 follows the initial market launch in Japan and Switzerland duty-free in 2021.
“The launch of the IQOS Iluma Prime, our most refined and advanced device yet, in Dubai Duty Free further demonstrates our constant commitment to delight our legal-age consumers in travel retail with our most premium and stylish product range,” PMI vice president of Duty Free Edvinas Katilius said during the Dubai opening.
The electronic nicotine-delivery systems road is a rocky one, and it is difficult to predict what innovation may be around the next corner. For IQOS, however, market growth is on the horizon.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com.
The quality of evidence available about heated tobacco products (HTPs) is substandard and policymakers should be wary of claims made about their role in harm reduction, say the authors of a new study published in Tobacco Control.
HTPs have gained popularity in recent years, with proponents insisting they are less harmful to health than conventional cigarettes. However, researchers at the University of Bath argue that the evidence underpinning these claims is largely unrepresentative of real-world use and at high-risk of bias.
In their analyses of 40 publicly available clinical trials for HTPs—29 of which were tobacco industry affiliated or funded—the researchers judged most of the available clinical trials “at high risk of bias” given their methodology and choice of study design.
The most common reason for studies being at high risk of bias was performance bias, whereby the interventions allocated were known to participants and those conducting tests. There was also failure to report all results data for all trial measurements, a shortcoming known as selective reporting bias.
The authors argue that presence of these biases compromises the validity of trials and can lead to overestimation of the effects of HTPs. They also identified further limitations within trials, including short durations, restrictive conditions unreflective of real-world circumstances, and a lack of relevant comparators, like e-cigarettes.
Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group says much more detailed, independent research is needed to assess the short- and long-term health effects of HTPs.
In the meantime, they argue that consumers should be wary of harm reduction claims and that policymakers and regulators should carefully consider the usefulness of these trials when making decisions surrounding HTPs.
“Over recent years we have seen great expansion in the heated tobacco market in the U.K. and around the world. This growth has been predicated on a marketing claim that these products are better for health, in comparison with traditional cigarettes,” said lead researcher Sophie Braznell from Bath’s Department for Health.
“Our analysis suggests that the picture is far less clear-cut. The clinical trials available, which are used by the tobacco industry to substantiate these claims, were often substandard in terms of how studies were conducted and reported, and most were industry-affiliated in some way.
“As more consumers move away from cigarettes towards these new generation products, we need much better evidence to assess their health impacts now and into the future. In the meantime, the jury is very much still out on their benefits.”
“These findings in relation to clinical trials for heated tobacco products are significant and we need to be wary of health claims made,” added study co-author Gemma Taylor from the Addiction & Mental Health Group and Deparmtent of Psychology at the University of Bath.
“At the same time though, it is important to note the clear distinction between ‘heated tobacco products’ and ‘e-cigarettes.’ Consumers and health policymakers must not equate the potential benefits of e-cigarettes in helping people to quit smoking with heated tobacco products.”
The quality of evidence available about heated tobacco products (HTPs) is substandard and policymakers should be wary of claims made about their role in harm reduction, say the authors of a new study published in Tobacco Control.
HTPs have gained popularity in recent years, with proponents insisting they are less harmful to health than conventional cigarettes. However, researchers at the University of Bath argue that the evidence underpinning these claims is largely unrepresentative of real-world use and at high-risk of bias.
In their analyses of 40 publicly available clinical trials for HTPs—29 of which were tobacco industry affiliated or funded—the researchers judged most of the available clinical trials “at high risk of bias” given their methodology and choice of study design.
The most common reason for studies being at high risk of bias was performance bias, whereby the interventions allocated were known to participants and those conducting tests. There was also failure to report all results data for all trial measurements, a shortcoming known as selective reporting bias.
The authors argue that presence of these biases compromises the validity of trials and can lead to overestimation of the effects of HTPs. They also identified further limitations within trials, including short durations, restrictive conditions unreflective of real-world circumstances, and a lack of relevant comparators, like e-cigarettes.
Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group says much more detailed, independent research is needed to assess the short- and long-term health effects of HTPs.
In the meantime, they argue that consumers should be wary of harm reduction claims and that policymakers and regulators should carefully consider the usefulness of these trials when making decisions surrounding HTPs.
“Over recent years we have seen great expansion in the heated tobacco market in the U.K. and around the world. This growth has been predicated on a marketing claim that these products are better for health, in comparison with traditional cigarettes,” said lead researcher Sophie Braznell from Bath’s Department for Health.
“Our analysis suggests that the picture is far less clear-cut. The clinical trials available, which are used by the tobacco industry to substantiate these claims, were often substandard in terms of how studies were conducted and reported, and most were industry-affiliated in some way.
“As more consumers move away from cigarettes towards these new generation products, we need much better evidence to assess their health impacts now and into the future. In the meantime, the jury is very much still out on their benefits.”
“These findings in relation to clinical trials for heated tobacco products are significant and we need to be wary of health claims made,” added study co-author Gemma Taylor from the Addiction & Mental Health Group and Deparmtent of Psychology at the University of Bath.
“At the same time though, it is important to note the clear distinction between ‘heated tobacco products’ and ‘e-cigarettes.’ Consumers and health policymakers must not equate the potential benefits of e-cigarettes in helping people to quit smoking with heated tobacco products.”
