AFP, LONDONTobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) is aiming to stop selling conventional cigarettes and replace them with a less harmful product, its chief executive officer said on Wednesday. As the firm launched its smokeless iQOS cigarette in Britain, Andre Calantzopoulos told BBC radio that the company would try to move smokers over to the new product. “I believe that there will come a moment in time where we have sufficient adoption of this alternative product and sufficient awareness to start envisaging, together with governments, a phase-out period for cigarettes,” Calantzopoulos said. “I hope this time will come soon.”Marlboro maker Philip Morris is the world’s second-biggest cigarette producer by market share, after the state-owned China National Tobacco Corp (中國煙草). PMI has spent US$3 billion on creating the iQOS substitute cigarette, the BBC reported.

Source: Taipei Times December 01, 2016 16:04 UTC