CELEBRATING 10 YEARS
OF SMOKE-FREE PROGRESS
To mark the 10th anniversary of our leading heated tobacco product (HTP), we released a compelling series of films capturing the journey of innovation behind our transformation—and the future progress required to achieve our smoke-free ambitions.
“PMI: A Story of Innovation” consists of five episodes featuring senior leaders and PMI experts reflecting on the launch of our HTP, our successes to date, and opportunities for further growth.
Full of candid revelations, you’ll discover how we approached solving the problem of smoking, the early challenges we faced developing our flagship product, and the learnings we applied to propel us forward.
Episode 1 – “A Genius Idea”
Why we made the big decision to pursue heat-not-burn technology and transform our business. It all started with hiring the right people to address the issue of burning tobacco.
Episode 1 – “A Genius Idea”
André Calantzopoulos, Chairman of the Board, Philip Morris International (PMI), sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
The industry had said in the late nineties and admitted openly that cigarettes cause disease and premature deaths.
What do you do to resolve the problem?
Music rises and graphics appear showing early designs and the evolution of PMI's heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text shows title of video: PMI - A Story of Innovation - #01: "A Genius Idea"
André Calantzopoulos continues:
Eliminating the combustion, hence 'smoke-free', is the solution and the answer to the problem.
Serge Maeder, Global Head of RRP System Innovation, PMI, sat in open-plan office with mountains in the background, speaking to camera:
At the beginning all the options are available. So you have a full blank sheet with no specification, just a desire to develop a good product …
Jean-Claude Schneider, Global Head, New Business Opportunities, PMI, sat in open plan office, continues on the same subject:
…that can, on one hand, address the issue of combustion, the issue of burning, but in the meantime, making sure that smokers can find pleasure and therefore have an alternative that is viable.
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI, sat in an office, speaking to camera:
We'd had a previous product before, that frankly didn't work very well, that was heated from the outside.
Serge Maeder:
But these products were commercial failures.
André Calantzopoulos:
And I think the consumer readiness also was not as high as later on.
Voiceover of Jean-Claude Schneider as he walks through PMI's Research and Development Center, The Cube, in Neuchätel.
You don't figure it out at the beginning. You start and day in, day out, you build your level of confidence.
But the first day you cannot figure out how many issues, how many challenges you're going to face and how are you going to do each and every step.
Serge Maeder:
So we started from the point where we knew the technology was possible.
So by heating tobacco, you can actually reduce toxicants that are created by combustion…
Graphic showing a thermometer and the words spoken by Jean-Claude Schneider.
Maeder continues:
…but we didn't have any example of a successful product.
So the challenge for us was to say, can we push and develop this technology to a point where it becomes acceptable to adult smokers?
Footage of Serge Maeder in the laboratory assessing heated tobacco products
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
It took us a while to figure out that you need to have a very different approach.
And they came with this genius idea that if we figure out a way to put the heater in the inside, then we could make it much more efficient.
Animated infographic showing the development of a heated tobacco product with the heater on the inside of the product.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
But that was not the first question. The first thing: to hire people.
Different music starts and clips of people in open-plan offices discussing and laughing.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, sat in an office speaking to camera:
So, in movies it is called magic, but in real life you need hundreds, thousands of people.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
As you know, it's not only one person or five or 10, it is the whole company that achieved this.
And I think everybody can be perfectly proud of what we have done.
Moira Gilchrist:
When you're a scientist, it's not often you get to work on a subject that has the potential to change the lives of a billion people.
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI, sat in an open plan office, talking to camera:
We want to do harm reduction. We want to deliver benefits to consumers.
That process of explaining what we want to do, it’s not easy.
Karlygash Bismeldinova, AGC, Commercial Development Law, PMI, speaks to camera:
I was like, 'Wow, we are going to see a completely different product.
We will learn a lot of things. We will be developing as an organization.'
Shea Lih Goh, President, PMI Japan, speaks to camera:
It was unimaginable.
And to be honest, I was one of the few skeptical people because we had failed a couple of times before.
Urs Bringold, VP Content & Owned Media, PMI, speaks:
There were people that said: 'This is the end of Philip Morris.'
Lisa Hook, Member of the Board of Directors, PMI, speaks to camera:
We have to innovate to cannibalize our core business.
Mimi Kurniawan, Chief Diversity Officer, PMI, speaks:
The fact that we came up to disrupt our industry…
Graphic appears showing text: We came up to disrupt our industry.
Mimi Kurniawan continues:
…unless we do it, no one is going to start it.
Lisa Hook speaks:
I think it's the most extraordinary achievement I've ever seen any corporation accomplish.
Video cuts to scientists in a lab.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
So, give Philip Morris International a huge and frankly scary goal and everyone will point towards it and do everything they possibly can to achieve that goal.
Stefano Volpetti, President Smoke-free Inhalable Products & Chief Commercial Officer, PMI, speaks:
We have that passion, that drive to go in the right direction of smoke-free. And, we are delivering on it and we will deliver on it.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
So, I never really had a doubt that we could do it.
The question was: how long would it take?
New music begins and video cuts to The Cube.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
So, since day one, André was very supportive, very helpful in the development.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
I think having a technical background has helped me understand a bit of the technological challenges
but it was not me who developed the product. Let's be realistic.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
I always remember his message: Don't make any shortcuts.
Graphic appears showing text: We’re gonna have one chance to justify.
It continues, showing early designs and the evolution of PMI's heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
We're going to have one chance to justify this next-generation-type of product, so we have to make it right.
Scott Coutts, Senior Vice President, Operations:
If we hadn't have done it, we probably would be viewed in a much more skeptical light.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
I think we did the right thing. And I was so happy that, you know, in order to enjoy the great things in life,
you need a bit of luck beyond your skills.
And the luck is coming that you were in the right moment, in the right place.
And you could enjoy this terrific journey.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
That's how it all started. And back in 2003, 2004, there was a lot of thinking behind this,
but the decision was taken and that’s how the journey started.
Graphic appears showing the text: In the next episode.
Andre speaks:
We all believed in this product, so we never wavered.
Scott Coutts speaks:
It all starts here.
Serge Maeder speaks:
We really needed to invent something new.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
Can we separate the two?
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It’s not a guinea pig, it is a privilege.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
The results were astounding. They were so different to cigarettes.
Philip Morris International logo appears with text underneath reading:
Episode 2 coming soon!
WATCH – PMI: A STORY OF INNOVATION
4 Videos Found
Episode 2 – “We Never Wavered”
André Calantzopoulos, Chairman of the Board, Philip Morris International (PMI), sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
The moment you can, you have a good chance to address the problem of smoking, then you should try.
Obviously, there were much more question marks over whether this is feasible.
Music rises and graphics show early designs and the evolution of PMI’s heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text shows title of video: PMI - A Story of Innovation - #02: We Never Wavered
André Calantzopoulos continues:
At the beginning, we had a number of projects.
Serge Maeder, Global Head of RRP System Innovation, PMI, sat in open-plan office, speaking to camera:
We had examples of products that heated tobacco but didn’t really work or didn't meet consumer expectations,
so we really needed to invent something new.
André Calantzopoulos, speaking to camera changing to voice over graphic showing cigarette photo and text:
For me it was more promising. Looks like a cigarette.
For me, it was more promising if we could get the product that looked like a cigarette.
Urs Bringold, VP Content & Owned Media, PMI, speaks:
There were attempts before to construct things: Cigarettes with charcoal tips and all that, and they were all a complete commercial failure.
André Calantzopoulos:
We kept this project alive for many years, hoping we will find a solution.
Serge Maeder speaks:
So, IQOS as it is today, was more a plan B in case the effort to develop something like a stick fails.
Video cuts to the outside of The Cube research and development center in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI, speaks:
The beautiful Cube in Neuchâtel was built for the sole purpose of developing IQOS in a protected environment.
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI, sat in an office, speaking to camera:
So, we were this little funky group of people working on this project that nobody in the company really knew about.
Jean-Claude Schneider, Global Head, New Business Opportunities, PMI, sat in open plan office, speaks:
Having engineering, science and product development together in the same kind of a college campus or co-location is essential.
Video shows interior of The Cube.
Mimi Kurniawan, Chief Diversity Officer, PMI, speaks:
It’s the center of the future. It’s also a center of our innovation.
Graphic shows The Cube in Neuchâtel and text reads: It’s the center of our innovation.
Scott Coutts, Senior Vice President, Operations:
Really, this is the heart of PMI.
Video cuts to The Cube.
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, speaks:
You will be super lucky if you only try one idea, and it works.
No, in scientific research, in technology development, more often than not you need to try with several iterations.
While Bin Li is speaking, video cuts to Jean-Claude Schneider handling previous PMI heated tobacco products
Jean-Claude Schneider, speaks showing first commercialized proposition of IQOS:
One of the first propositions, which we commercialized, the first reaction was, ‘Are you joking? It’s way too big.’
It was big because the battery was very big.
So, the breakthrough of IQOS development was, ‘Can we separate the two?’
Graphic appears showing first IQOS proposition separated into the device and the battery.
Text reads: Breakthrough of IQOS development
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
The thirst for information in the broader company became almost insatiable.
So, we made quite a deliberate decision to start internally explaining what we were doing, explaining the early scientific results.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, sat in an office speaking to camera:
During meetings, people were asking about, ‘Is there anything we haven’t asked you?’
And I said, ‘Yes, you haven’t asked us about the innovation.’
And everyone was like, ‘Innovation in the cigarette industry? What do you want to innovate?’
Graphics appear showing a light bulb and then IQOS with text: You haven’t asked us about the innovation. What do you want to innovate? This!
Jacek Olczak voiceover graphics:
And I was showing IQOS, and I was showing the product.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It was a fun time actually, for me. And yeah, I was amongst the first ones to have the product.
And we kept this tradition.
We were always amongst the first to try new products in the company.
Urs Bringold speaks:
There was a point in time where almost everybody in senior management was using that product.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It’s not a guinea pig—it’s a privilege to be in a position to be so close with the product development.
Video cuts to scientists in a lab.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We had a small pilot clinical study that we got some results from.
And the results were, frankly, for us they were astounding. They were so different to cigarettes.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
So that is a kind of a wow moment. We have the sensory, now the clinical.
Serge Maeder speaks over video of scientists looking at a computer.
We have reduced toxicants. We don’t have solid particles. All these major, major differences.
Stefano Volpetti, President, Smoke-free Inhalable Products & Chief Commercial Officer, PMI, speaks:
Science is extremely important because we are in the business of transforming the trajectory of public health globally.
Graphic appears showing a drawing of the globe and text: Transforming the trajectory of public health globally.
Shea Lih Goh, President, PMI Japan, speaks:
When we started the journey to be supported with strong science evidence,
I think it was something that was very consistent across the world.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
You have the science. But at the end of the day, you want observations.
Do you feel better? Then you really trust the science.
Video cuts to The Cube
Lisa Hook, Member of the Board of Directors, PMI, speaks to camera:
You have to remember this is a radical transformation.
How many companies say, ‘We’re going to go into a business that could completely cannibalize the core?’
Scott Coutts speaks, and graphics appear showing early designs and the evolution of PMI’s heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text on graphic reads: How are we going to make this transformation.
For everyone, it was quite inspiring.
But at the same time, it was also terrifying.
How are we going to make this transformation?
And I think what André did was to really unify the company to say, ‘No, this is about us as PMI. We are one company.’
Karlygash Bismeldinova, AGC, Commercial Development Law, PMI, speaks to camera:
But I don't know how he managed to convince investors.
Lisa Hook speaks:
The investors didn’t flee. Why didn’t they flee?
Because they are sticking with this team and this vision.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It took probably three or four years more than I had originally thought, for very many good reasons.
But the good thing is we all believed in this product, so we never wavered, but now we have to go to the market.
Graphic appears showing the text: In the next episode.
Scott Coutts speaks:
We’re going to launch and we’re going to make mistakes.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We were nowhere near ready.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
The probability that you will fail is very, very high.
Scott Coutts speaks:
It took time. It took patience.
Karlygash Bismeldinova speaks: We didn’t know what would be the reaction.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
Oh, my goodness, we were in tears.
Philip Morris International logo appears with text underneath reading:
Episode 3 coming soon!
Episode 3 – “We’re Going to Launch”
André Calantzopoulos, Chairman of the Board, Philip Morris International (PMI), sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
We overestimated our capabilities to commercialize this product and underestimated all the things that may go wrong.
Music rises and graphics appear showing early designs and the evolution of PMI’s heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text shows title of video: PMI - A Story of Innovation - #03: We’re Going to Launch
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI, speaks:
How do we turn a brilliant innovation into a real, reliable consumer product?
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI, sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
André Calantzopoulos went to investors in one of the investor calls and told them that we would be launching our heated tobacco product
the following year on the market for real consumers to buy.
We felt we did not have a chance to be able to make it happen.
But I think, looking back now, he did that very purposefully because we were tweaking everything and we would never have been satisfied.
So, I think he put a stake in the ground to say it would be done in the following calendar year.
Scott Coutts, Senior Vice President, Operations, PMI:
We’re going to launch and we’re going to make mistakes, and we need to be able to do that in a small enough scale in each of the different launch markets,
but at the same time having the ability to be able to quickly turn on the overall supply chain, to be able to react to that.
Graphic appears showing a rocket drawing and an ON switch.
Text reads: We’re going to launch in a small enough scale. Ability to be able to quickly turn on the overall supply chain.
Stefano Volpetti, President Smoke-free Inhalable Products & Chief Commercial Officer, PMI, speaks:
When you are trying to do something that nobody has ever done before, the probability that you will fail, the probability that it will be two steps forward, one step backwards, is very, very high.
Lisa Hook, Member of the Board of Directors, PMI, speaks to camera:
In the real world, in the operating world, we knew that these products were so compelling
that it was just a matter of time before they succeeded.
Serge Maeder, Global Head of RRP System Innovation, PMI, sitting in an open-plan office , speaking to camera:
And I think, when we finally put this product on the market, it was a big relief to everybody because, the day you on are the market, this is no longer confidential.
Graphic appears showing for sale sign and text reads: The day you on are the market (FOR SALE) = no longer confidential.
Graphic appears showing the Cube, PMI’s R&D center in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and text reads: We can finally explain what we were doing!
Serge Maeder, voice over graphic:
And we can talk to anybody about what we do.
We can finally explain to our friends and family what the hell we were doing in this Cube.
Moira Gilchrist, speaking to camera:
And we made it… and we made it with three months to spare. So, I'm pretty happy about that.
Video cuts to the Cube
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It has been very difficult to find a name.
Jean-Claude Schneider, Global Head, New Business Opportunities, PMI, sitting in an open plan office, speaks to the camera:
What is a name, word that can be really international?”
Urs Bringold, Vice President Content & Owned Media, PMI, speaks:
We had a name that was promising and interestingly it was not IQOS… it was a couple, but it was IQO. Just completely made up names, right?
They don’t stand for anything, but you could associate something with it.
And then we started to add letters in front of it – and at the end, so BIQO, IQOT, and we ended up with IQOS.
That was the birth of the name then that stayed till today.
Graphic shows first propositions of device names before IQOS. Text reads: We started to add letters… IQOS… the birth of the name.
Video cuts to Mount Fuji and busy Japan
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
We actually launched commercially in Japan. Why Japan?
For a very simple reason: Japan had a history of consumers accepting innovation.
Graphic shows Mount Fuji, Japan. Text reads: Japan had a history of consumers accepting innovation
Scott Coutts says:
Consumers demand innovation to be relevant. So, they have this expectation of product innovation, creativity, bringing new things.
Shea Lih Goh, President, PMI Japan, speaks to camera:
There is a very strong culture of being very considerate to others.
These are the kind of the product benefits that really resonated with Japanese consumers.
Mimi Kurniawan, Chief Diversity Officer, PMI, speaks:
When people saw the product, people said, ‘This is truly the difference that drives us to achieve our bold vision.’
Graphic shows IQOS product.
Text reads: This is truly the difference that drives us to achieve our bold vision.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
Plus, also, we had a favorable regulatory environment, which allowed us to do a lot of communication and a lot of trials with the consumers at the start.
Karlygash Bismeldinova, AGC, Commercial Development Law, PMI, speaks to camera:
We didn’t know what would be the reaction. Yes, of course we did studies. We tried to test and see what consumers would think about it. But you never know.
You cannot be sure until you launch.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We were sent photographs and videos of what was happening on the ground and,
oh my goodness, we were in tears to see consumers queuing round the block to get into the store and find out about this product.
And then we moved our focus and attention to Italy, which had been the second pilot launch market. And it was an utterly different story.
Graphic shows the Colosseum in Italy and a scooter. Text reads: It was an utterly different story. 2nd pilot launch market.
Video cuts to Milan Cathedral and busy streets.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, sitting in an office speaking to camera:
In the early days in Milan when we started, were, I mean, from today’s perspective, they were pretty bumpy.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
It was really hard to make communications in Italy because it’s not permissible due to the regulation.
Scott Coutts speaks:
It took time, it took patience to be able to bring new-to-world products to the market
and have adult consumers actually understand, ‘What's in it for me?’ ‘How do I use the product?’
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
So, of course, there wasn’t the replication of what we had seen in Japan right on our doorstep in Italy.
So, we were like, ‘What is going on here? What’s wrong?’
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
What we had understood less is how in actual use by hundreds of thousands of people, what problems may occur.
Graphic appears showing the text: In the next episode.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
We will go smoke-free and this is the direction, no way back.
Serge Maeder speaks:
It was a very, very bold move.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
There were a lot of articles criticizing us.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
The wait, I have to say, was excruciating.
Philip Morris International logo appears with text underneath reading:
Episode 4 coming soon!
Episode 4 – “No Way Back”
André Calantzopoulos, Chairman of the Board, Philip Morris International (PMI), sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
Don't assume you know everything when you don't, okay?
So, that was one of the first lessons learned.
Music rises and graphics appear showing early designs and the evolution of PMI's heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text shows title of video: PMI - A Story of Innovation - 4: No Way Back
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, speaks:
Our first generations of the IQOS product at one point had up to 20% return rate.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, sat in an office speaking to camera:
There was quite a massive return of the devices, but not return to smoking.
People were retaining devices and asking for a replacement. They wanted to continue the journey.
Graphic appears showing early IQOS design changing to another graphic with a road.
Text reads: People were retaining devices. They wanted to continue the journey.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It's not only the money because you had to replace the device.
It’s the consumer frustration you get.
Bin Li speaks:
That is really the lowest moment for IQOS devices and the PMI team is frustrated
because when it works, we see how much the consumer loves it.
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI, sat in an office, speaking to camera:
We didn't launch and then pause.
We were continually figuring out which things we had to fix.
Scott Coutts, Senior Vice President, Operations:
As we get into new platforms, new-to world technologies,
the plans will always be wrong, but it's okay.
Bin Li speaks:
There's got to be uncertainties in the innovation journey
and we should allow our scientists, our technologists, our engineers to do their job.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
As a company, when we have issues, we are very good in reacting very rapidly.
So, one after the other, we fixed our issues.
Graphic appears showing a wrench tightening a bolt.
Text reads: One after the other we fixed our issues.
Video cuts to people walking into the PMI office building in Lausanne, chatting and then moves on to showing people operating machines.
Stefano Volpetti, President Smoke-free Inhalable Products & Chief Commercial Officer, PMI, speaks:
Even in a company of the size of PMI, more than $30 billion in revenues,
more than 70,000 employees, big changes are driven by few people that you can count on the fingers of one hand.
And for sure, André is one of them.
Graphic appears showing headlines from various newspapers.
André Calantzopoulos voiceover:
It may sound as a bold statement, but I think it was the right thing to do.
It was the right signal that we are very, very serious.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
When you are taking a direction that is totally different from the previous direction,
you need that galvanizing thought that we will go smoke-free and this is the direction, no way back.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
When we went public about this idea that we were going to transition away from cigarettes completely,
I think that opened a lot of people's minds to the possibilities.
Graphic appears showing a light bulb changing to a human head with highlight on the brain.
Text reads: When we went public about this idea. Transition away from cigarettes completely. Opened a lot of people's minds.
Mimi Kurniawan, Chief Diversity Officer, PMI, speaks:
When I heard about the company moving to stop selling cigarettes to go to the heat-not-burn products,
you trust the company. You trust the leader.
Shea Lih Goh, President, PMI Japan, speaks to camera:
After he made that statement, there was a lot of articles criticizing us.
'Are we genuine?' 'Is this real?'
So, there was skepticism then a lot.
On reflection now, I think it was one of the best proud moments of Philip Morris.
Because I think up to today, no other company has made such a bold statement as we do.
Karlygash Bismeldinova, AGC, Commercial Development Law, PMI, speaks to camera:
If you are truly a believer in the smoke-free vision and you want smokers to switch to a better alternative
than continued smoking, you really go for that with your true intention. This is what happened.
Serge Maeder, Global Head of RRP System Innovation, PMI, sat in open-plan office, speaking to camera:
It was a very, very bold move.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
That simplifies externally and internally all discussions, because we know which direction we are going.
Everybody knows that we are going smoke-free.
Graphic appears showing a crossed out cigarette.
Text reads: We are going smoke-free.
Jean-Claude Schneider, Global Head, New Business Opportunities, PMI, sat in open plan office, speaks to the camera:
The clear view in the organization was that if we want to be able one day to make a claim, we will need to substantiate it.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
To tell consumers that this product is different than cigarettes.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
The FDA processes, still today the most thorough, lengthy, in-depth process of reviewing evidence behind our heat-not-burn.
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
This endorsement was perceived as very critical.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We had all the scientific evidence, but there was then an enormous amount of pressure on the team
that had to build this dossier, and make it clear to the FDA what we felt we should be authorized to say.
Graphic appears showing stacked papers.
Text reads: Build a dossier. Make it clear to the FDA.
Lisa Hook, Member of the Board of Directors, PMI, speaks to camera:
That was significant globally, other countries look to the FDA, in terms of authorization.
So, it's quite important for us, not just in the US but globally.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
It was a two day meeting that we prepared for, for almost a year.
I still feel quite emotional when... makes me feel, even to this day, quite emotional about the experience we all went through together.
It was incredible teamwork.
Urs Bringold, VP Content & Owned Media, PMI, speaks:
It has to be really, really super thorough to convince those people and also, the sort of criticism they get for that.
That there's a bar that is even higher than it looks on paper.
Bin Li speaks:
That's a big, big learning journey for a tobacco company like PMI.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We submitted that evidence in 2016.
We kind of took a breath. And the wait, I have to say, was excruciating.
It ended up being 4 years.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
The good news is that this product got a modified risk tobacco product authorization by the FDA.
And nobody else, in at least the heated tobacco products, has obtained this.
Graphic appears showing FDA MRTP Authorization stamp with a tick.
Text reads: To date, no other HTP has this!
Karlygash Bismeldinova speaks:
It means we can be proud of our science. We can be proud of the product.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
The science never stops, the investigation never stops.
And we're determined to provide the evidence that will convince regulators, not just FDA, that this product is utterly different than cigarettes.
Graphic appears showing the text: In the next episode.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
We are sitting on something that can change the trajectory of public health.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
I have never regretted for a second that we went into this product.
Karlygash Bismeldinova speaks:
We're always in the process of progress.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
Every function within the company has undergone some sort of transformation.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
This is a great movie. I want to see more of this, more of this.
Philip Morris International logo appears with text underneath reading:
Episode 5 coming soon!
Episode 5 – “Never Stop”
André Calantzopoulos, Chairman of the Board, Philip Morris International (PMI), sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
It was a very interesting journey, a very exciting journey with frustrations
from time to time, with setbacks. But I think we did the right thing.
Music rises and graphics appear showing early designs and the evolution of PMI's heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text shows title of video: PMI - A Story of Innovation - #05: Never Stop
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI, sat in an office, speaking to camera:
Being there from the very, very beginning,
since it was just an idea that was sketched out on a flip chart to where we are now.
And that's, a sense of enormous pride at what we've done.
Shea Lih Goh, President, PMI Japan, speaks to camera:
Every function within the company has undergone some sort of transformation.
Lisa Hook, Member of the Board of Directors, PMI, speaks to camera:
It is extraordinary to get to be on this ride.
Video cuts to the PMI office building in Lausanne, Switzerland
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
I have never regretted for a second that we went into this product.
What I regret is we didn't have the knowledge and the understanding,
I can blame myself for that, to avoid certain of the difficulties and the problems we had in the initial years.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, sat in an office speaking to camera:
Knowledge of anything today and you go back in time, you could do things differently.
But the knowledge today is the result of
experiences you build over the last period.
Graphic shows human brain which changes to stacked cubes with text: Knowledge is the result of experiences you build.
Lisa Hook speaks:
There has never been a moment where the board or the management team
has hesitated to keep pushing forward.
Urs Bringold, VP Content & Owned Media, PMI, speaks:
There was once sort of a visual just to illustrate what one day we would have.
The illustration was: you saw a tobacconist shop and you had a side
that was like ‘cigarettes’ and on the other hand, you had ‘IQOS’ and all that.
And I swear it, a lot of people internally before it launched were like,
'It will never happen' and all that. And now it is, you know.
Graphic shows tobacconist shop and text to the left 'Cigarettes' and to the right 'Smoke-free products'.
Stefano Volpetti, President Smoke-free Inhalable Products & Chief Commercial Officer, PMI, speaks:
The only gift here would be the gift of all the learnings that we had in the last ten years,
have it as of day one. Because that would have accelerated this journey.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
As executive of a company, you always say, 'If I knew when I started what I know when I finished,
that would be a very different company.'
Video cuts to the PMI office building in Lausanne.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
So, where do we go from here?
I think now it's about continuing to build on the science.
It's about continuing to listen adults who smoke.
Serge Maeder, Global Head of RRP System Innovation, PMI, sat in open-plan office, speaking to camera:
We have just opened a small door, but I think we have a lot of options to make this product better.
But yes, you're talking to the wrong guy,
you’re to talking to the guy whose job is to improve the product going forward.
Mimi Kurniawan, Chief Diversity Officer, PMI, speaks:
What is the next product, what next innovation? What else?
Graphic shows early designs and the evolution of PMI's heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text reads: What is the next product/innovation?
Karlygash Bismeldinova, AGC, Commercial Development Law, PMI, speaks to camera:
Never stop. And this is what I really like about PMI. We're always in the process of progress.
Emmanuel Babeau, CFO of PMI, speaking to camera:
Ten years ago, the level of skepticism, cynicism sometimes, on our ambition to unsmoke the world
and become a smoke-free company was very high.
Ten years after, I believe that nobody today can seriously challenge how genuine we are in delivering this ambition.
Graphic shows a cigarette broken in half and text: 10 years ago/after cynicism of our ambition
Graphic changes to a parcel box and text reads: Nobody today can challenge how genuine we are.
Serge Maeder speaks:
We have a chance, in the next 10 years to go full smoke-free products in PMI.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
If you take Tokyo, more than 50% of the volume is in smoke-free products.
The direction is set.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
I think today, as we said, we have many things to be proud of in Japan.
But we are not resting on our laurels. Obviously, we want to do more.
So, I'm very, very sure in the next 10 years, there will be a lot of significant achievements.
Jean-Claude Schneider, Global Head, New Business Opportunities, PMI, sat in open plan office, speaks to the camera:
Innovation is coming. I don't know what we're going to have maybe in three, four, five years.
But I know something is going to be available, that we're going to have a constant evolution.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We've made incredible progress, but there's a world still of a billion smokers.
So, we're kind of one smoker at a time.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
We are sitting on something that can change the trajectory of public health.
Graphic appears showing a speedometer and text reads: Get there faster, help from stakeholders, health regulators
Stefano Volpetti voice over graphic:
We're going to get there faster if society, antis, stakeholders, health regulators help us to go in that direction,
but not because they need to help PMI,
but because we have a responsibility to consumers out there to provide them with better alternatives.
Video cuts to the PMI office building in Lausanne
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, speaks:
Ten, 15 years ago, we said that, 'We may be able to do it, to replace cigarettes.
To give smokers a better alternative.'
Graphic appears showing a cigarette and an IQOS device.
Text reads: We may be able to replace cigarettes. Better alternative
Scott Coutts, Senior Vice President, Operations:
When we say we want to do something, we can change the industry as we're doing today.
Lisa Hook speaks:
I think it’s the most extraordinary achievement I've ever seen any corporation accomplish.
Mimi Kurniawan speaks:
This is showing that we are achieving the bold vision and the bold milestone that we set for ourselves.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
I'm just proud to be part of this journey and this beautiful history.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
I have no regrets. There were a lot of hard days. But I have no regrets.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
All these things have taken lot of time. But are important milestones in your filmography.
It's many happy endings, but still it's many episodes to come.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
This is a great movie. You don't want this movie to finish, I want to see more of this, more of this.
Video cuts to Moira Gilchrist sitting in a chair, filmed by a camera, writing on a notepad.
André Calantzopoulos sitting in a chair, being filmed by a camera crew member, asks:
Female voice behind camera:
Everyone happy? Yeah. Go.
André Calantzopoulos sitting in a chair, being filmed by camera crew members, asks:
What was your question?
Female voice behind camera:
Your proudest moment?
Bin Li sitting in a chair, being filmed by camera crew members, speaks:
Two words come to my mind.
Video shows Jean-Claude Schneider's notepad
Female voice behind camera speaks:
Lowest moment?
Jacek Olczak speaks:
Oh, lowest?
Female voice behind camera speaks:
Yeah.
Jacek Olczak speaks:
You know me very well, I am a born optimist, okay.
Mimi Kurniawan speaks:
Sorry. I changed.
Video shows Karlygash Bismeldinova's notepad.
Karlygash Bismeldinova speaks:
Future is always difficult.
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
What was the toughest moment?
Video shows Lisa Hook's notepad.
Lisa Hook speaks:
Can you give me some ideas?
Jean-Claude Schneider speaks:
That was simple.
Video shows Scott Coutts's notepad.
Scott Coutts speaks:
Our hope for the future.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
Full name?
Video shows Stefano Volpetti's notepad. Male voice behind camera speaks:
That's wonderful handwriting.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
Wonderful or terrible?
Urs Bringold speaks:
Oh, no. I have to take a new...
Bin Li speaks:
Do I sign?
Jacek Olczak speaks:
You ready?
Video shows graphics of everyone's notes from their notepads alongside a short video of them writing in their notepads in the following order:
Jacek Olczak, Mimi Kurniawan, Moira Gilchrist, André Calantzopoulos, Jean-Claude Schneider, Shea Lih Goh, Bin Li, Serge Maeder.
Graphic appears: PMI A story of innovation
Jacek Olczak speaks:
I think we did the right thing.
Philip Morris International logo appears with text underneath reading: The End!
A DECADE THAT DELIVERED
In the 10 years since we launched the first version of our HTP, we’ve made significant progress toward delivering our vision of a smoke-free future. We have remained committed to our ambition of replacing cigarettes with scientifically substantiated better alternatives as quickly as possible.
We have continuously developed and expanded our portfolio of pioneering smoke-free products, investing USD 12.5 billion to develop, scientifically substantiate, and commercialize smoke-free products since 2008.
Reflecting on the past 10 years of innovation at PMI provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the progress we’ve made so far. These are the strides that are driving our ambition for smoke-free products to account for over two-thirds of our total net revenues by 2030—and, ultimately, to phase out cigarettes entirely.
