Philip Morris International Inc. takes another step towards a smoke-free future through a strategic collaboration with Parallax, a Canadian-based start-up. The agreement focuses on the development and commercialization of an effective nicotine-delivery system more healthy than the already known electronic cigarette leveraging the most advanced technologies in pulmonary medicine.
This move is framed into the strategy of changing its business model of this US tobacco multinational through the switch to more healthy alternatives than the traditional cigarette to deliver tobbaco nicotine to smokers all over the world.
Till this announcement Philip Morris develops or already offers four kinds of tobbacco hitting tech products: IQOS, TEEPS, E-VaPOR range, and STEEM.
The co-founders of Parallax, Drs. Noe Zamel and Arthur Slutsky, are Canadian leaders in pulmonary research and medicine, with global reputations and more than 750 peer-reviewed publications between them. For years, they have been firm believers in tobacco harm reduction: the policy of providing safer alternatives to people who smoke as a complement to measures meant to encourage quitting and discourage people from starting to smoke.
Since its founding, Parallax has assembled a world-class team of experts in formulation, device design, pharmaceutical quality manufacturing, product research and consumer insights.
Philip Morris (PMI) objective is that at least 30% of its consumers, some 40 million men and women, will switch to its smoke-free products by 2025.
Since 2008, PMI has hired over 400 scientists and experts and invested more than USD 4.5 billion to develop, substantiate and build manufacturing capacity for a wide portfolio of smoke-free products. PMI has launched IQOS, a precisely controlled heating device into which a specially designed and proprietary tobacco unit is inserted and heated to generate an aerosol, in 40 markets where over five million smokers have already stopped smoking and made the change to IQOS.
Prof. Manuel Peitsch, PMI’s Chief Scientific Officer, stated that, “Science and technology will be essential to a future where all men and women who smoke switch to better alternatives. Our collaboration with Parallax, founded by world-renowned experts in pulmonary research and technology, is another step forward and will give us access to innovative technologies and expertise.”
Drs. Zamel and Slutsky noted: “As physicians and co-founders of Parallax, we believe that to save lives requires technology, innovation, and a paradigm shift in the mainstreaming of the concept of harm reduction.”
Steven Ellis, Parallax’s CEO, added: “Our team couldn’t be more excited about this next step in our journey – working with the global leader in smoke-free innovation and collaborating with its scientific team in fulfilling our joint mission of replacing what we all know is the most harmful delivery system for nicotine, the cigarette, with innovative alternatives that clearly move smokers to a better place in the harm reduction continuum.”
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