Juul Labs co-founder and Chief Product Officer James Monsees said that Altria invested in the e-cigarette maker to change their company to no longer kill.
“The hope is to, in collaboration with Altria, to accelerate the … alteration of their business into one that doesn’t kill people anymore,” Monsees said in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Altria is one of the world’s largest cigarette and tobacco manufacturing companies, known in particular for producing Marlboro cigarettes, through its subsidiary Philip Morris USA.
In December, Altria bought a 35% stake in Juul for $12.8 billion.
Juul has come under increasing scrutiny from the federal government and Congress because of the rapid rise in vaping among young people. Monsees testified on behalf of Juul Labs as a part of a two-part hearing titled “Examining Juul’s Role in the Youth Nicotine Epidemic.”
“We didn’t want any non-nicotine users and certainly no one underage to use Juul products,” Monsees said in his opening statement. “Juul Labs isn’t Big Tobacco. We are here to eliminate its product: the cigarette.”
