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 Since iQOS was launched in the UK in December, Philip Morris has
found that about 70 percent of users are able to give up cigarettes,
Peter Nixon, its UK and Ireland managing director, told BBC Radio.
That compares with only about 15-20 percent of people who use
e-cigarettes, he said.
"It's unprecedented," Nixon told the Today show. "We're very
encouraged that products like iQOS are the absolute game changer."
Whereas e-cigarettes use nicotine-laced liquid, IQOS heats tobacco
sticks, called Heets, to a high enough temperature to create a vapor
but not smoke.
Philip Morris, which has Marlboro cigarettes among its global
brands, has applied to U.S. health regulators to have iQOS
recognized as having "modified risk" compared with cigarettes.
British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco are also selling
tobacco-based "vaping" devices, but so far Philip Morris is in the
lead.
The company sells about 7 billion Heets a year, which is tiny
compared with the 820 billion conventional cigarettes it sells. But
Nixon told the BBC that the company hopes to produce 100 billion
Heets next year, a huge jump from the less than 400 million it made
in 2015.
"We're absolutely serious. One day we want to stop selling
cigarettes," Nixon said on the program. "We're moving very fast."
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There are still 7.5 million smokers in Britain, Nixon said, and
Philip Morris has hired "freelancers" to help to bring that number
down. These freelancers act like quitting coaches and can earn 50
pounds ($64.95) from Philip Morris for every person they convert
from cigarettes to iQOS.
"With these types of programs we can get that down to almost zero in
coming years," Nixon said.
(Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by David Goodman)
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