Common-Sense Approach for Public Health

Making better, more satisfying alternatives for the greatest number of smokers

The World Health Organization estimates that there will be over a billion smokers by 2025.¹ With so many people choosing to smoke, it makes sense that they should have less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. Why would anyone deny them this opportunity?

A few important steps are needed to make this common-sense approach a reality for millions of smokers. First, you need to invent less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. Second, these alternatives should be appealing to smokers: they should deliver a taste and sensory experience that leads smokers, who would otherwise continue to smoke, to switch. We can achieve a significant public-health benefit only when a large number of these smokers switch from cigarettes to better products.

We’re investing people, resources, time, and money to develop and assess the risk-reduction potential of these new products. Our innovation pipeline includes four product platforms that can meet the varying preferences of adult smokers and hence help them to switch.

In pursuing our vision of reduced-risk products, we are eager to see measures introduced that drive large-scale switching as quickly as possible. We are confident that the right mix of government leadership and commercial initiative will dramatically accelerate efforts to reduce the health burden of smoking.