Philip Morris – Oral Cancer News

Test Markets Reveal Women Choose Dissolvable Tobacco

Source: Convenience Store News WINSTOM-SALEM, N.C. -- Since starting a second round of testing, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s dissolvable tobacco products are proving popular among women. The product line -- Camel Sticks, Camel Strips and Camel Orbs --do not require spitting, which could be a deciding factor among female tobacco users. According to a report in the Winston-Salem Journal, females represented 45 percent of all adult smokers who bought Camel Sticks, Camel Strips and Camel Orbs during September and October. Of all adult tobacco users, 31 percent were women. By comparison, the news outlet reported that adult males make up 85 percent of moist snuff and Camel Snus users. R.J. Reynolds' dissolvable line is currently being sold in Denver and Charlotte, N.C. The first round of testing took place in Columbus, Ohio Indianapolis and Portland, Ore. "We have seen a noticeable appeal and interest of the dissolvable products with adult female tobacco consumers," Reynolds spokesman David Howard told the newspaper. Stephen Pope, an industry analyst and managing partner of Spotlight Ideas in England, said Reynolds may have discovered a niche with adult female tobacco users. "Clearly the figures for the dissolvable products make for fascinating reading and actually show that here could be a product that, if handled correctly, could well offer an opportunity for a special female-targeted product that could be as significant as Virginia Slims was for Philip Morris," he said. The dissolvable products "could prove to be the first viable smokeless tobacco products for females," stated Bonnie [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-22T10:33:04-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Philip Morris sues Australia over cigarette packaging

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/ Author: Bloomberg News Philip Morris International said it had started legal action against the Australian government over the nation’s plans to allow the sale of cigarettes only in plain packages. The company filed a notice of claim against the government saying that the proposals violate terms of Australia’s Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong, according to an e-mailed statement on Monday from Philip Morris’s Asian unit. A copy of the court document was not immediately available. Australia, which has already banned the public display of tobacco products in retail outlets, wants to outlaw logos on cigarette packs and force them to be sold in plain dark-olive packaging, carrying health warnings instead of company logos. Cigarette brand names will appear on the packages in the same size and style of printing. The legislation, if passed by Parliament, would come into force in 2012. “The forced removal of trade marks and other valuable intellectual property is a clear violation of the terms of the bilateral investment treaty between Australia and Hong Kong,” Anne Edwards, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris Asia, said in the statement. “We believe we have a very strong legal case and will be seeking significant financial compensation for the damage to our business.” The government raised tobacco taxes by 25 percent last year as it sought to curb smoking, which is the nation’s largest single preventable cause of death, according to the nation’s health minister, Nicola Roxon. “We don’t believe that taking that action is in breach [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-27T06:06:24-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Tobacco companies expand their epidemic of death

Tobacco companies expand their epidemic of death on Feb 10, Philip Morris International will report their 2010 full-year results. We guess that they will make much of their claim to sell their products in 160 countries worldwide. Tobacco is a good global business to be in. Last week saw Imperial Tobacco report increases in sales of cigarettes to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. The company’s share price rose steeply. One newspaper reported that “Imperial declared it was increasing the [share] dividend on the back of its strengthening position”. Analysts said forecasts that smoking was on the decline had been “overdone”. Go to Imperial Tobacco’s website and you will find boasts that sales are up 10% in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and Russia. New markets are opening up—in South Korea, for example. Sales are on the rise in Laos and Vietnam. And across Africa, the Middle East, eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific, revenues increased to £2·34 billion last year. For companies like Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco—selling, addicting, and killing, surely the most cruel and corrupt business model human beings could have invented—it is not surprising that they see “many opportunities for us to develop our business” in vulnerable low-income and middle-income countries. Without a trace of irony or shame, Imperial’s management team reported to investors last week that the company won a Gold Award rating in a 2009 corporate responsibility index. Yet tobacco executives know they are peddling death. If one tries to view Imperial’s investor presentation, several slides are now blank. Why? Imperial says “because we do not feature tobacco product imagery on our website”. While tobacco companies such as Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco spread [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-02-11T12:15:06-07:00February, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Health and philanthropy—the tobacco connection

Source: www.thelancet.com Author: Simon Chapman On June 14, the world's two richest men, Mexico's Carlos Slim Helú and the USA's Bill Gates, jointly announced that they would each contribute US$50 million to the Latam health project to increase vaccinations and improve child nutrition and natal health in central America.1 Slim already contributes reputedly $2·5 billion annually to his Instituto Carlos Slim de la Salud, which runs a large variety of health programmes in Latin America.2 The latest announcement will naturally attract widespread acclaim as an outstanding example of philanthropy. But it also invites important questions about consistency and competing interests. Any assessment of Slim's net contribution to public health must balance the impact of his philanthropic contributions as well as the indirect health consequences that flow from his wealth generation with a less appreciated source of his wealth. Descriptions of Slim's vast fortune generally concentrate on his telecommunications empire.3 Relatively little is mentioned about his long-standing majority ownership of the Mexican tobacco company Cigatam,3 which has since 2007 been 80% owned by Philip Morris.4 Slim's website acknowledges that Cigatam “turned out to be the first and most important because of its cash flow, providing the Group with sufficient liquidity to capitalize on available opportunities and thereby increase its acquisitions of big companies”.5 Nor is it as widely publicised that he has a continuing role as a non-executive director6 of the world's largest tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI). The company's shareholders doubtless expect him—like all directors—to make a major contribution [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-01-05T09:31:57-07:00January, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

As cigarette sales dip, new products raise concerns

Source: www.atomiurl.com Author: staff If he were conceived today, there might not be just a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He might also have, tucked into his pocket, a cellphone-size container holding a dozen pouches of snus. It rhymes with “goose,” (cynics might say “noose”), and is a Swedish type of smokeless tobacco that’s not your grandfather’s dip or chew. Snus comes in teabag-like pouches that a user sticks between the upper lip and gum, leaves there for up to 30 minutes and discards without spitting. As no-smoking laws sweep the nation and cigarette sales continue to fall, big Tobacco is alarming the public health community by devising other ways to try to make tobacco appealing. with smokeless products representing the only booming part of the U.S. tobacco market, snus is an effort to boost sales with a product that — unlike most smokeless ones — doesn’t require users to spit out the residue. Snus also represents something more: an attempt to move smokeless tobacco beyond stereotypical users such as baseball players and rodeo cowboys, and into offices or restaurants where people want a nicotine fix but can’t light up. “This is a growth strategy for us,” says Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s biggest tobacco company and maker of Marlboro, the top-selling cigarette. In Dallas this month, Philip Morris is launching its first smokeless product with a cigarette brand name: Marlboro Snus. R.J. Reynolds, second in U.S. tobacco sales, is expanding tests of its Camel Snus [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-05T13:08:02-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Both sides take tobacco fight to Supreme Court

Source: www.thesunnews.com Author: Mark Sherman The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court Friday to allow the government to seek nearly $300 billion from the tobacco industry for a half-century of deception that "has cost the lives and damaged the health of untold millions of Americans." Both sides in a landmark, decade-long legal fight over smoking took their case to the high court Friday. The administration, joined by public health groups, wants the court to throw out rulings that bar the government from collecting $280 billion of past tobacco profits or $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking. Friday's filings with the Supreme Court mark the latest phase in a lawsuit that began during Bill Clinton's presidency. Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest tobacco maker, its parent company Altria Group Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., British American Tobacco Investments Ltd. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. filed separate but related appeals that take issue with a federal judge's 1,600-page opinion and an appeals court ruling that found the industry engaged in racketeering and fraud over several decades. In 2006, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the companies engaged in a scheme to defraud the public by falsely denying the adverse health effects of smoking, concealing evidence that nicotine is addictive and lying about their manipulation of nicotine in cigarettes to create addiction. A federal appeals court in Washington upheld the findings. At the same time, however, the courts have said the government is not entitled to collect $280 billion in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-20T22:40:43-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Los Angeles jury recommends Philip Morris USA pay $13.8 million in punitive damages

Source: snus-news.blogspot.com Author: staff A jury on Monday, August 24th, recommended that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer, according to a report by the Associated Press. The panel voted 9 to 3 in favor of Bullock's daughter Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case. Betty Bullock died of lung cancer in February 2003. She had sued Philip Morris in April 2001, accusing the company of fraud and product liability. A jury in 2002 recommended Philip Morris pay a record $28 billion in punitive damages to Bullock, but a judge later reduced the award to $28 million. In 2008, the 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed the jury's decision and remanded the case for a new trial over the punitive damages. Philip Morris said the $28 million remained excessive; however, the original jury recommended the tobacco company pay Bullock $750,000 in damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering, a verdict that still stands. In a statement, Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc., which owns Philip Morris, said any amount given to Bullock's daughter is unwarranted. "After hearing weeks of improper arguments and evidence that violated state and federal law on punitive damages, the jury still managed to reject plaintiff's patently unreasonable request," said Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris. "Even so, we believe that any punitive damages award is unwarranted based on the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-08-29T16:53:58-07:00August, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Up in smoke: health insurers hold billions in tobacco stocks

Source: Southernstudies.org Author: Desiree Evans A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that major U.S., Canadian and British life and health insurance companies are investing billions of dollars in tobacco company stock. Researchers first revealed that health and life insurance companies had major investments in tobacco companies in 1995 in an article in the British medical journal Lancet. More than 10 years later, insurance companies are still deeply invested in "big" tobacco, despite the national calls upon them to divest. "Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people's health," said Wesley Boyd, the new report's lead author and a faculty member of Harvard Medical School. "It's clear their top priority is making money, not safe-guarding people's well-being." The report found that seven health and life-insurance companies in both the United States and overseas have nearly $4.5 billion invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco. "Although investing in tobacco while selling life or health insurance may seem self-defeating, insurance firms have figured out ways to profit from both," Boyd said. "Insurers exclude smokers from coverage or, more commonly, charge them higher premiums. Insurers profit -- and smokers lose -- twice over." The study highlights New Jersey-based Prudential Financial Inc., which sells life insurance and long-term disability coverage. With total tobacco holdings of $264.3 million, Prudential Financial is a major investor in three tobacco firms, including America's biggest cigarette [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-06-19T07:41:28-07:00June, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Swedish Match and Philip Morris International announce global joint venture to commercialize smokefree tobacco products

Source: www.swedishmatch.com Author: press release Swedish Match AB and Philip Morris International (PMI) today announced that they have entered into an agreement to establish an exclusive joint venture company to commercialize Swedish Snus and other smokefree tobacco products worldwide, outside of Scandinavia and the United States. The joint venture will utilize the strong combination of Swedish Match’s product development and manufacturing expertise in the smokefree category and PMI’s extensive sales and distribution infrastructure to develop business opportunities worldwide. Under the agreement, each company will own a 50% stake and will license their respective trademarks and intellectual property to the joint venture. “PMI is the ideal strategic partner for Swedish Match in the smokefree category. This agreement provides us with the opportunity to bring our quality products to consumers across a broader geography,” said Lars Dahlgren, Swedish Match President and CEO. “The smokefree category has demonstrated substantial growth in Sweden and Norway over a number of years and we believe that smokefree tobacco products, and especially Swedish Snus, have potential outside of their current markets.” “We are delighted to join forces with Swedish Match and are confident that this exclusive partnership will over time generate strong results for the benefit of our respective shareholders,” said Louis Camilleri, Chairman and CEO of PMI. Snus has been recognized by many in the scientific and public health community to be significantly less harmful than cigarette smoking. Both companies believe that there is a role for snus to play in tobacco harm reduction. The joint [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-08T18:18:50-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|