In an effort to shift the public’s health interest, Philip Morris International (PMI) is now slowly moving away from selling cigarettes to safer alternatives.
To this end, the world’s largest tobacco company has partnered with Vectura (VEC.L) to receive access to the British drugmaker’s respiratory disease treatments and inhalation device technologies.
PMI reported net revenues of $7.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, which is up 6% from the same period a year ago, with smoke-free goods accounting for 28% of total net revenue. The global shipping of heated tobacco units also increased by 29.9%, to 21.7 billion units.
Furthermore, due to the popularity of its heated tobacco products, it raised its full-year 2021 projection from 4-7 percent to 5-7 percent. In the first quarter of 2021, the tobacco company supplied 6.4 billion Heets to Iqos in Europe, up from 4.6 billion in the same period of 2019, with Germany and Italy trailing behind.
Meanwhile, Eastern Europe gained 29.1%, East Asia and Australia gained 28.3%, and East Asia and Australia gained 28.3%. In contrast, Latin America and Canada gained only 2.8 percent.