“Tobacco firms are spending billions of dollars to develop smokeless alternatives such as nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes and tobacco-heating devices as fewer people smoke traditional cigarettes. Philip Morris International Inc. faces the possibility of having imports of its IQOS heated-tobacco sticks to the U.S. blocked as early as November in an intensifying legal battle with British American Tobacco Plc over cigarette alternatives. BAT’s subsidiary Reynolds American Inc. seeks to block imports of the sticks as it alleges that the tobacco heating technology used in IQOS devices infringed its patents. The six-day trial at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. began Monday, with a judge scheduled to release his findings in May. The device, where the tobacco is heated enough to create an aerosol but not enough to combust, also got the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s nod last year to be marketed as reducing consumers’ exposure to harmful chemicals found in cigarettes, giving Philip Morris even more of an edge against competitors.”
ARTICLE LINK: Philip Morris Faces Risk of Cigarette Alternative Block in U.S.
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