Philip Morris to Focus on Cigarette Alternatives

Philip Morris International, the company behind Marlboro, is to spend another $100m this year developing its alternative to traditional cigarettes as a global marketing drive intensifies to convert smokers to new products. Martin King, chief financial officer, said extra funds would be deployed to accelerate innovation of the company's IQOS product — a cigarette-like device that heats, rather than bums, tobacco. The plans, ahead of an imminent launch of IQOS in the US, are the latest sign of big tobacco ramping up investment to safeguard the industry's future. Rival manufacturers are fighting over a share of the market for alternatives as consumers reject traditional cigarettes at an accelerating rate. They include vaping company Juul, in which US tobacco group Altria took a 55 per cent stake last December for Sl3bn.