Martin King is CEO of Philip Morris International America and leads the company’s charge to get people around the world to quit smoking cigarettes. He has worked abroad on this issue but has recently returned to the United States.
The company’s motive in getting smokers to quit cigarettes is not wholly altruistic. Cigarette sales have recently declined, but “smoke-free” products have seen a surge in demand, according to CNN. And while PMI strongly advocates for people to stop smoking altogether, it also provides a smoke-free alternative for people who are looking for a change in their smoking behavior.
In 2014, PMI launched its IQOS device, which is a “heat-not-burn” device that uses a battery-powered system to heat tobacco to a point at which it is not on fire but generates an aerosol that can be inhaled. The FDA recently allowed it to be marketed in the U.S.
King is in charge of educating the world about the device. He joined Philip Morris USA in 1991 and in 2003 joined PMI. He is a graduate of Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in government. He also holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
King recently spoke to the Washington Examiner to discuss the rollout of IQOS.
Washington Examiner: The WHO recently reported that overall, tobacco use has fallen worldwide over the past two decades. Your objective with IQOS is for people to quit smoking cigarettes and either stop smoking altogether or do it in a safer manner, correct?
King: Correct. When we talk about a smoke-free future, our vision for the company is to be able to have all the smokers in the world eventually either stop smoking, which is the best choice, by the way. … But if people are going to continue smoking, which is most of them — let’s face reality — then the goal is to switch them over to a noncombustible, scientifically substantiated, ideally regulated product. … We believe these products are a much better choice for smokers.
Washington Examiner: But products like IQOS are safer, not safe, right?
King: That’s correct. We have never said that. IQOS does have risks. Any tobacco product has some residual risk.
Washington Examiner: The FDA on April 30, 2019, permitted the marketing of IQOS in the U.S. It also reported that the “IQOS Tobacco Heating System contains fewer toxic chemicals than cigarette smoke” and that the “levels of acrolein and formaldehyde are 89% to 95% and 66% to 91% lower than from combustible cigarettes, respectively.” While these are encouraging results, what does that mean in terms of reducing your risk of becoming ill from using an IQOS device?
King: What you can’t tell definitively is: What reduction in harm does that give you as a result? In other words, what happens to the disease [that is] caused? So if IQOS reduces harm by 95%, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the disease is reduced by 95%. It could be reduced by more. It could be reduced by less. We don’t really know for sure and won’t know for many years. So we’re very, very, very careful to say that your best option is to quit entirely.
Washington Examiner: You recently moved back to the U.S after working abroad on IQOS. How did efforts go in other countries in converting cigarette smokers into IQOS users?
King: We’ve been knocking on the doors of [roughly] 15 million IQOS users. Almost 11 million are fully converted internationally, and we’re trying to replicate that success here in the U.S.
Washington Examiner: What about the others?
King: The rest are using it mixed with cigarettes and in the process of conversion, if you will. It takes them a while to get fully converted over to IQOS.
Washington Examiner: How are you tracking this?
King: We have panels that we put together in the countries where we have launched, and they’re large, representative panels of smokers. We ask them whether they are using [IQOS] exclusively or not, how many cigarettes have they used in the past week. There are questions that go to each of the panels, and [that] allows us to access what stage of conversion they’re in or whether they have fully converted.
Washington Examiner: Do you have a goal in mind for how many smokers you want to convert?
King: We have some objectives. By 2025, our objective is to have over 40 million smokers switch to IQOS. That happens to be, by the way, the approximate number of smokers in the United States.
Washington Examiner: How confident are you that you will hit that target?
King: We’re pretty confident that we’re going to do this because we already have a track record, and we’re close to 15 [million], so we’re [roughly] a third of the way there.
Washington Examiner: How long have you been trying to convert smokers into IQOS users?
King: We launched for the very first time in late 2014 in Japan and Italy. … This hasn’t been going that long.
Washington Examiner: What makes a smoker convert?
King: The product is designed to be a cigarette from the point of view that you get a similar length of experience. You get a similar number of puffs. It’s shaped somewhat like a cigarette and has a filter on it so it feels like a cigarette in your mouth. … The taste, the ritual, the weight — it’s designed to satisfy smokers. … It’s 70% successful or more, on average, in getting someone to fully convert … once [they] buy it. … It’s very similar to what they are used to — except instead of lighting it with a match or lighter, you turn on your button that heats the [tobacco].
Washington Examiner: IQOS is not an e-cigarette, correct?*
King: That’s correct. It uses electronics from the point of view that you are controlling a heater that slips into the tobacco and heats it to a very specific temperature below the temperature of combustion.
Washington Examiner: How is this different from an e-cigarette?
King: The difference is rather than using a liquid with nicotine in it that is derived from tobacco, [IQOS] uses tobacco itself. … I think it is important to say that this product is different from e-cigarettes. … It literally has tobacco in it. It’s not based on a liquid [like e-cigarettes].
Washington Examiner: So the tragic deaths related to vaping that occurred recently could not occur using IQOS?
King: Yes, correct. … That was caused by a type of liquid that should never be used. … If you vape in oil and inhale it into your lungs, it’s a big problem because your lungs can’t clear the oil. The oil is not water-soluble, and in order to clear something like that, it has to be water-soluble. … [With IQOS], there’s no liquid at all.
Washington Examiner: The focus of your campaign is aimed at smokers — you’re not trying to entice a nonsmoker to try an IQOS. How are you accomplishing this?
King: We have a strict marketing code, and we are very careful. If you walk into an IQOS store anywhere in the world … the first thing I want to do is make sure you’re of age. … The second thing that we’re going to ask is, “Are you a cigarette smoker?” If you say no, even though you are 54 years old, we’re going to say, “Look, this really isn’t for you. This is for smokers.”
Washington Examiner: So if I walk in to my local 7-11 convenience store to purchase an IQOS, the clerk is going to ask me if I smoke and deny the sale if I say no?
King: I’m talking about the device. This is how you are going to buy your device, and it is much more controlled by us. … I’m talking about the initial start, where you can’t use the consumables without buying the device.
Washington Examiner: Do you track the number of sales lost because the person did not smoke cigarettes?
King: I don’t think we track that, but in several countries, we have had people go in and test to see whether we really are living up to that. I know in the U.K.* they went in [a store] and tested, and they came out saying, “They wouldn’t sell it to me.” … So we have had a number of tests, but we don’t have [anything] specific.
Washington Examiner: Earlier, you talked about the 2025 goal to convert smokers to IQOS. Do you have a projection for when cigarettes will no longer be smoked around the world?
King: To the last person lighting a cigarette around the world might take a while. I think there are a number of countries where we could see within 10 to 15 years being able to get rid of cigarettes.
Washington Examiner: Which countries?
King: The country furthest along right now is Japan. … Almost a third of all smokers in Japan have switched to heat-not-burn products. … Will that be true for every country? Maybe not. It might take longer.
*Clarifications:
The question originally stated that IQOS is “less dangerous, according to the FDA.” The FDA has not made a decision on this.
The tracking of possible sales lost occurred in the U.K., not the U.S. as was originally reported.
