Interviewer asks:
Ultimately, if your aim is to stop every smoker out there from smoking,
why wouldn’t you just stop making cigarettes?
Nevena Crljenko, Vice President, Public Affairs, Philip Morris International, replies:
If Apple stopped producing iPhones today, would people stop using phones?
The answer is no.
The equivalent of that is if we stopped making cigarettes,
a smoker goes tomorrow to the shop,
they’ll buy another brand, and we don't have to imagine scenarios:
We can look at the countries that actually banned tobacco.
Bhutan did it several years ago, banned the use of cigarettes.
South Africa, in Covid-times, banned temporarily the sale of tobacco products and alcohol.
What happened? The market was flooded with illicit products.
So, if there is demand, there will be a supply,
and we believe it’s better to phase out cigarettes, obviously.
And if more people are switching to smoke-free products,
obviously there’ll be less demand for cigarettes.
Our progress toward a smoke-free future as of 2025 Q3
-
41 percent
of PMI’s total global net revenues came from our smoke-free business¹.
-
>41 million
estimated legal-age consumers of PMI’s smoke-free products².
-
100 markets
where our smoke-free products are available, providing better alternatives for legal-age adults³.
-
USD >14 billion
invested to develop, scientifically substantiate, and commercialize smoke-free products since 2008⁴.
1 As of September 30, 2025. 2 As of June 30, 2025. 3 As of October 2025. 4 As of December 31, 2024. Important Note: This information should be read in conjunction with the Philip Morris International Inc. earnings release dated October 21, 2025, as well as the accompanying glossary of key terms, definitions, explanatory notes, select financial information and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures, both of which are available on our Investor Relations pages. “PMI,” “We,” “Our,” & “Us” refers to the entire Philip Morris International family of companies.
Interviewer says:
There's a lot of confusion around smoke-free products.
What are they?
Are they really less harmful than cigarettes?
And why are governments banning them completely?
There's a lot to unpack, but let's begin with what a smoke-free product is.
Nevena Crljenko, Vice President, Public Affairs, Philip Morris International, replies:
Smoke-free products are very different products than cigarettes are.
The most known tobacco product in the world.
Cigarettes are lit and burned.
And the smoker inhales the smoke.
Smoke contains thousands of chemicals, many of which are harmful.
Your body is exposed to them and over time it develops into the disease.
So the first principle we developed was let's eliminate the burning process.
We can eliminate the burning process by a couple of things.
We can control the temperature in terms of
how we heat tobacco but not burn it.
That's heated tobacco products.
We can heat the liquid which contains nicotine.
This is e-vapor product (e-cigarettes).
Or we can create oral products such as nicotine pouches,
which basically are not warmed at all.
But the key component, irrespective of how different these products are,
is that they do not contain the burning,
which is the main source of smoking-related diseases.
In the news
Survey shows strong public support for smoke-free products to help reduce smoking rates
Philip Morris International-commissioned survey also highlights growing concerns about how public health decisions are made, with respondents calling for decision-makers to study the science behind smoke-free products.
Gentle percussion music starts.
Interviewer asks:
So real-world evidence is showing us that
these products can help lower the number
of smoking-related diseases, but they’re still not risk-free.
And as a huge multinational company, these products are in markets across the globe.
What are you doing to stop underage use?
Nevena Crljenko, Vice President, Public Affairs, Philip Morris International, replies:
These products we produce are for adults only.
We have very strict controls in terms of limiting the access of youth
to these products.
We develop our communication, which is clearly geared just to the adults.
In all of our own retail channels, we have age verification
to make sure that it’s just the adult person who
has access to these products,
and we work with all our partners,
such as distributors and the others, to follow the same principles.
Music ends
How we #MakeHistory by creating better choices
Music starts.
Elodie Ly, Lead Life Sciences Projects, Switzerland, talks to camera.
Our team of more than 400 world-class scientists, engineers and technicians are constantly working towards offering current adult smokers a better choice than continuing to smoke cigarettes.
Music ends
Words appear on screen:
Hashtag Make History
Find out more at PMI.com.
Latest news & press releases
Media CenterSomething went wrong. Please, reload the content.
This site is operated for the purpose of providing general information about us. The site is not operated for advertising or marketing purposes. The material on this site should not be regarded as an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any product of PMI. Such products are sold only in compliance with the laws of the particular jurisdictions in which they are sold.