Philip Morris CEO Wants to “Unsmoke the World”

Jacek Olczak, the CEO of Marlboro maker Philip Morris, told The Mail yesterday that the company will stop selling cigarettes in Britain in the next 10 years.  

Yeah, we did a double take too, but it is not fake news: Olczak is urging the British government to treat cigarettes like fossil-fuel cars and basically regulate them to death (the government is banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles in 2030). 

So how will that work from a business perspective, exactly? Philip Morris wants to transition to a “healthcare and wellness company” where half of its sales come from non-smoking products.  

• The company currently generates a quarter of its revenue from alternatives such as its electronic IQOS device that heats tobacco instead of burning it. 
• Earlier this month, Philip Morris said it would buy Vectura, a company that makes asthma inhalers. 

Big picture: Critics say the public shouldn’t trust cigarette companies to lead a campaign that would ban smoking, especially when they’re still marketing cigarettes in lower income countries where most of the world’s smokers now reside.