Philip Morris International (PM) is spending some $680 million on an Italian factory with the aim to make cigarettes safer.
“This first factory investment is a milestone in our road map toward making these products available to adult smokers,” Chief Executive Officer Andre Calantzopoulos said in the statement.
As more and more governments crack down on smoking, tobacco companies are responding in new ways — this latest push by Philip Morris hopes to provide products to consumers that lower cancer risk.
The new device, which looks like a fountain pen, allows a custom-built cigarette to be inserted and then tobacco is heated to generate a smoking aerosol.
The plant, near Bologna, will start producing tobacco products that are heated with a special device rather than burned at the end of 2015 or early 2016, the New York-based company said in a statement today. The factory will have capacity to produce as many as 30 billion units a year, equivalent to about 6 percent of the European Union’s cigarette sales, the company said.
In November, Philip Morris brought the launch date of the tobacco-heating product forward to 2015 from a previous forecast of 2016 or 2017. It will test it in a few cities in the second half of this year.
Unlike e-cigarettes, Philip Morris is creating products that don’t deviate too far from traditional smoking methods. Still, PM itself will enter the e-cigarette market later this year.
Philip Morris said that it started clinical trials last year on its “safer” cigarettes — and has for some time been trying to perfect the newer cigarettes.
PM stock is down 4% over last year.
