Graham Mackay was on the Board of Directors of Philip Morris International (PMI) from 2008 until his death in December 2013.¹²

SABMiller

Mackay was the Chairman of SABMiller which was the world’s second largest beer company.¹
In 1978, Mackay joined the South African Breweries Limited, holding numerous senior positions, including Executive Chairman of the beer business in South Africa. He was appointed Group Managing Director in 1997 and was the Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Reckitt Benckiser Group plc until his resignation in June 2013.³

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Phillip Morris International
• SABMiller

References

The post Graham Mackay appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Roles on Imperial Tobacco’s Board

Wyman joined Imperial Tobacco in October 2011 as a Non-Executive Director, and was appointed Senior Independent Non-Executive Director in 2017.⁴
He was the Chair of two committees, the Audit Committee (2012-2017) and the Remuneration Committee (2018/19), and a member of the Succession and Nominations Committee (2019).^{4 6}

Career in the Alcohol Industry

Wyman was Chief Financial Officer of SABMiller from 2001 until 2011, when he retired from the company after 25 years of service.⁷
Wyman has been credited for playing “a pivotal role” in “SABMiller’s transformation from a small regional business into a leading global brewer”.⁸
Following his retirement, Wyman continued his involvement with SABMiller in a consultancy capacity.⁸

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Imperial Tobacco
• SABMiller

References

The post Malcolm Wyman appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Knowledge-Action-Change

Stimson is the founder and Director of Knowledge-Action-Change (K-A-C) which says it is “a private sector public health agency”¹⁰ that aims to promote health through harm reduction. Read more on our page on K-A-C.

New Nicotine Alliance

Stimson was also on the Board of the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) until 2019. The NNA says it is “completely independent of commercial interests in relevant industries (e-cigarettes, tobacco, pharmaceutical companies, etc). It operates on a not-for-profit basis and is free from commercial bias”.¹¹¹²

NNA UK was a founder member of INNCO, until it announced it had ceased its membership on 12 July 2019 “due to differences concerning future strategy, including funding arrangements.” ¹³¹⁴

According to a NNA UK newsletter from August 2019, Stimson – who had been a Board member of NNA UK since at least 2015 – stepped down from the Board shortly after it announced it was leaving INNCO.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ As of November 2019, Stimson was no longer listed on the NNA website as being part of NNA UK.¹²

• For more information see International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO)

Links to Academia, Governments, the World Bank, UN and WHO

In 2004, Stimson was appointed Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. In 2017, he was appointed Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.¹⁸

According to a biography written by him in 2013, Stimson has “advised the UK Government, World Health Organization, UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Bank and others on issues relating to drugs and addiction. He was a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence NICE up to 2013 working group that recently prepared guidelines on tobacco harm reduction. He has no competing interests.”¹⁹

Direct and Indirect Tobacco Industry Links

K-A-C Funded by Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

Knowledge-Action-Change (K-A-C), of which Stimson is the founder and a Director, is funded by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), which is wholly funded by PMI. More information on the financial relationship between FSFW and KAC can be found on our pages on K-A-C and FSFW grantees.

Historical Links with British American Tobacco

At a NICE Programme Development Group (PDG) for Tobacco Harm Reduction meeting in 2011, Stimson declared he had “received hospitality from British American Tobacco staff and has reciprocated.”²⁰ as well as “declared that last year he attended a Christmas drinks receptions at British American Tobacco Ltd”.²¹

At a February 2013, NICE meeting, Stimson also “declared that he is the director of a company called Knowledge Action Change, which has requested and received development funding from Nicoventures for a project to support smoking cessation in a closed setting.”²²

Nicoventures was set up by BAT in 2010.²³ Stimson is largely transparent about these links in the academic literature although he describes Nicoventures only as an e-cigarette company rather than a company set up, and wholly owned, by BAT.

For example, one such declaration says: “A company of which G.S. Gerry Stimson is a director has received a research feasibility grant from an electronic cigarette company developing a new nicotine delivery device.”²⁴²⁵

The links are also disclosed in the British Medical Journal,²⁶ and in an Appendix to a letter on e-cigarettes to the World Health Organization (WHO) in May 2014.²⁷ In these he refers to receiving money from “a company developing a nicotine delivery device” or a “company developing a nicotine product”.

Historical Alcohol Industry Links

International Harm Reduction Association

From 2004 to 2010, Stimson was the Executive Director of the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA), whose aim is to reduce the negative health, social and human rights impacts of drug use and drug policy.¹⁸²⁸ In 2011, the IHRA relaunched as International Harm Reduction (IHR).²⁹

At the time that Stimson was Director, the IHRA broadened out to work on alcohol. An academic article published in December 2014, argued that IHRA had a “close relationship” with the alcohol industry.³⁰ According to the paper, the IHRA “specifically promotes reducing harm by means other than reducing consumption”, although reducing consumption is seen as the main way to reduce harm from alcohol.³¹

For example, in August 2004, the IHRA was a co-sponsor of the 2nd International Conference on Alcohol and Harm Reduction, where the focus was on challenging “traditional models” of thinking on alcohol. At the conference there was an emphasis on a “shift of attention from reducing alcohol consumption per se to reducing alcohol related harm”.³²³³

For the time that Stimson was a Director, IHRA accounts reveal the Association took some £260,000 from the alcohol industry in restricted (funds that can only be used for specific purposes) and unrestricted funding. (See Table 1)^3435363738

Table 1

In 2008, when IHRA launched the Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network, it said it was “funded and administered by IHRA. The network activities are funded through IHRA’s core funding, which is raised from a wide range of sources (such as conferences, project grants, membership, and donations).”In previous years, this core funding has included unrestricted donations from the alcohol industry, but IHRA no longer receives any such funding for this work.”³⁹

In an online debate, Stimson has maintained that “there was no close relationship, association or collaboration with the alcohol industry” during the period when he was Director of the IHRA between 2004-2010.⁴⁰

“Drinking in Context”

There has been a controversy over a book that Stimson co-edited in the 1990s on alcohol. Despite the involvement of alcohol funded think-tanks with researchers on the book, some of these links have since been downplayed and the book has been criticised in the academic press.

In 2007, Stimson was the “main editor” of a book “Drinking in context: patterns, interventions, and partnerships”,⁴¹ in which both IHRA and International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP), collaborated. The book has been highly criticised in leading medical journals (see below).

The foreword to the book said:

“The International Center for Alcohol Policies, which has taken the lead in the preparation of the book, is a think-tank supported by major drinks companies. Three other organizations have also contributed their expertise to this process: the International Harm Reduction Association has extensive experience in the field of illicit drugs; the World Federation for Mental Health has broad mandate to promote better mental health; and the Institut de Recherches Scientifiques sur les Boissons provides a welcome antidote to the Anglo-Saxon domination of the alcohol field.”⁴¹

ICAP’s website also outlined how:

“This book was commissioned by the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP), with assistance of expertise from the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA), World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), and the Institut de Recherches Scientifiques sur les Boissons (IREB).” ⁴²

Other material issued by ICAP admits that “The initiative in preparing this book was spearheaded by the International Center for Alcohol Policies”.⁴³

Despite these statements, in 2014, the then President of ICAP, Marcus Grant, refuted that IHRA and ICAP collaborated in the book, arguing that “This book was not the result of a collaboration between ICAP and the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) … I co-edited the book with three co-editors including Gerry Stimson, President of IHRA at the time, who did this work in his personal capacity.”⁴⁴

“Smoke and Mirrors”

One critic, writing in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction, criticised this book as a ‘‘smoke and mirrors’’ attempt to distract attention away from effective population level policies on alcohol.

Of the 26 authors in the book, the article outlined how eight either worked for the alcohol industry or for organisations funded by the industry.⁴⁵

Another reviewer, this time in the British Medical Journal added: “This book chiefly serves the purposes of the global alcohol industry and offers little to those wishing to tackle the unrestrained growth in global alcohol consumption that is predicted for the coming decade … The harm reduction movement needs clear blue water between itself and the alcohol industry.”⁴⁶

In 2014, Rick Lines, the Director of the HRI (formerly IHRA), contended that the organisation was not involved in alcohol harm reduction any more. Lines argued that: “we have no alcohol-related projects on the go, and haven’t been involved in alcohol harm reduction since 2010.”⁴⁷

International Center for Alcohol Policies

In 2014, Stimson was also on the Research Advisory Board of ICAP,⁴⁸

ICAP was a not-for-profit organisation founded by the major producers of alcohol in 1995. Its sponsors in 2014 included:⁴⁹

• Anheuser-Busch InBev
• Asahi Breweries
• Bacardi-Martini
• Beam Inc.
• Brown-Forman Corporation
• Carlsberg
• Diageo
• Heineken
• Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
• Moët Hennessy
• Molson Coors
• Pernod Ricard
• SABMiller
• UB Group

ICAP “part of a sophisticated public relations process” by the alcohol industry

ICAP has been criticised in the academic literature. One article in the British Medical Journal in 2007 noted how:

“What the industry fears is any control of the overall level of alcohol consumption. Public health advocates are focusing on strategies aimed at reducing the total consumption of alcohol, and the industry’s key aim is to promote overall consumption, albeit responsibly.”

“As part of a sophisticated public relations process the industry has established the International Centre for Alcohol Policy … The industry is determined to shape the public health debate and to protect its interests.”⁴⁶

Another journal article in the American Journal of Public Health in 2012, stated:

“Comparison of ICAP research and policy statements with findings from the WHO and other public health bodies and researchers showed how the industry has simultaneously cast itself as representing public health and ignored key findings of public health research regarding effective approaches to the prevention and reduction of alcohol-related problems.” ⁵⁰

ICAP was also criticised for its role in producing science to ensure the alcohol industry’s involvement and influence in alcohol policy debates:

“The ICAP and other alcohol industry organizations continue to argue, advocate, and promote the alcohol industry’s involvement in medicine and public health … The ICAP and its alcohol industry sponsors apparently learned from tobacco that industry must be out front in terms of social responsibility, able to foreshadow and pre-empt public health initiatives, as the ICAP has consistently done with its publications and other activities mirroring the work of the WHO. Industry arguments must be “science-based” and clothed in research credentials, as the ICAP has done with its many briefing papers and policy reviews. Rather than direct confrontation with public health, which the ICAP has studiously avoided, partnership is critical.”⁵⁰

The International Alliance For Responsible Drinking (IARD)

In October 2014, ICAP and the Global Alcohol Producers Group (GAPG) announced that the two organisations were merging to create the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD). It was officially launched in 2015.

In the press statement about the merger it was announced that “IARD will work to help reduce harmful drinking and promote responsible drinking through research, programs, and balanced debate around the world.”

The press release also stated that:

“Central to IARD’s mission will be supporting and accelerating implementation of the Beer, Wine and Spirits Producers’ Commitments to Reduce Harmful Drinking (www.producerscommitments.org). The organization will promote effective policies and programs, as well as contribute to an informed debate by providing balanced and evidence-based science.”⁵¹

The release added that provisional board members of the new organisation included:

• Anadolu EFES;
• AB InBev;
• Asahi Breweries;
• Bacardi; Beam Suntory;
• Brewers Association of Japan;
• Brown-Forman Corporation;
• Carlsberg;
• Constellation;
• Diageo;
• Heineken;
• JSLMA;
• Kirin;
• Moët Hennessy;
• Molson Coors;
• Pernod Ricard;
• SABMiller

Toolkits Adapted From “Drinking in Context”

IARD produced a series of Toolkits, including one called “Policy Planning and Choice: Guide to Feasible Interventions”. On the front page it stated that the briefing paper was adapted from Stimson’s co-edited book, “Drinking in Context: Patterns, Interventions and Partnerships”. ⁵²

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Global Forum on Nicotine
• E-cigarettes: British American Tobacco
• Knowledge Action Change
• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Grantees

Relevant Links

• Harm Reduction International website (formerly known as IHRA)
• K-A-C website

References

The post Gerry Stimson appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Altria, known pre-2003 as Philip Morris Companies Inc., is the American parent company of:⁵³

• Philip Morris USA, a cigarette manufacturer
• U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, a smokeless tobacco manufacturer
• John Middleton, a cigars and pipe tobacco manufacturer
• Nat Sherman, a premium cigarettes and cigars manufacturer (from 2017)
• Nu Mark, an e-cigarette company
• Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, a wine producer

Altria’s tobacco arm owns four major brands: Marlboro, Copenhagen, Skoal and Black & Mild. It owned two brands of e-cigarettes (also known as electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS): Mark Ten and Greensmoke.⁵³⁵⁴ which were discontinued in December 2018,⁵⁵ For more information see E-cigarettes: Altria

Philip Morris USA vs Philip Morris International

Prior to 2007, Altria also owned the international operations of Philip Morris, but in 2007, the company decided to separate the firm’s US and international operations. According to the Associated Press, the move cleared “the international tobacco business from the legal and regulatory constraints facing its domestic counterpart, Philip Morris USA”.⁵⁶
The spin-off was completed in 2008, leaving two distinct companies: Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA (the latter remains under Altria’s control).⁵⁷

For a brief history of the company and its origins in Richmond Virginia, see the Richmond Magazine’s timeline.⁵⁸

Employees & Board Members: Past and Present

William “Billy” Gifford replaced Howard Willard as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Altria in April 2020. This came shortly after the US Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint over the company’s investment in JUUL Labs (see below). Gifford’s appointment followed his promotion from Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to interim CEO after Willard took a medical leave of absence.⁵⁹⁶⁰⁶¹ Willard became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of Altria in May 2018, replacing Martin Barrington who had held that role for the previous six years.

A full list of the company’s leadership team can be accessed at Altria’s website.

Other people associated with the company:
Elizabeth Bailey | Jody Begley | Gerald Baliles | Harold Brown | Louis C. Camilleri | David R . Beran | John Casteen | Dinyar Devitre | Thomas Farrell | Dudley Fishburn | Kevin Freudenthal | Carlos Slim Helú | Craig A. Johnson | Thomas W. Jones | Denise F. Keane | Martin Liptrot | George Muñoz | Lucio A. Noto | John R. Nelson  | Jr. Nabil Sakkab | Michael E. Szymanczyk | Howard A. Willard III

Affiliations

As of March 2021, Altria reported that it financially supported and had employees in voluntary leadership roles in the following commerce and trade organisations:⁶²

US Chamber of Commerce National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) | National Association of Tobacco Outlets ) | National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) | California Retailers Association⁶³

Altria is also a member of the “Private Enterprise Advisory Council” of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a national corporate lobbying organisation, and has a long-standing relationship with the tobacco industry.⁶⁴⁶⁵ PR Watch describe ALEC as “an influential, under-the-radar organization that facilitates collaboration between many of the most powerful corporations in America and state-level legislative representatives”.⁶⁴ Head of Altria Client Services, Daniel Smith, sits on ALEC’s “Private Enterprise” board.⁶⁶⁶⁷PR Watch reported that Altria and Phillip Morris had given ALEC US$1.4 million between 1995 and 2010.⁶⁵⁶⁸

Corporate Social Responsibility

Altria publishes a list of “Recipients of Charitable Contributions from the Altria Family of Companies” each year on its website.⁶⁹

Among the organisations listed are those that Altria has donated to as part of its Corporate Responsibility strategy.⁷⁰ One such organisation is the Search Institute,⁶⁹⁷¹⁷² which “conducts youth development research to understand young people’s lives, challenges, and aspirations”.⁷³ Altria has stated that it donates to the Search Institute as part of its goal to reduce underage tobacco use.⁷⁴

Political Contributions

Altria declares its direct political contributions on its website.⁷⁵ In 2018 the company declared US$4.2 million in donations in the District of Columbia (home of the US capital Washington DC), with over US$3.2 million going to Republican groups.⁷⁵ In the 2018 US election cycle Open Secrets calculated that Altria has spent over US$3 million on direct political donations.⁷⁶ Similar amounts were donated in 2019 and 2020

The company also supports the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), the Congressional Black Caucus Institute,  and the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute.⁶³⁶² In 2018, Altria hired Mercury, a US public relations company to be its “Washington lobbyist on tobacco product legislation”.⁷⁷

In April 2019 Politico reported that Altria had recently hired a former aide to Kentucky Senator and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (a Republican), to lobby on tobacco issues.⁷⁸⁷⁹⁸⁰ In May 2019 Senator McConnell introduced a national bill to raise the legal age for buying tobacco and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21.⁸¹⁸²⁸³ An earlier draft of the bill had been described as too “industry-friendly”, and risked undermining stronger state controls over youth smoking and e-cigarette use.⁸³⁸⁴ McConnell, who has been described as a “long term industry ally”,⁸⁴ received a donation of US$79,000 from Altria to his 2018 election campaign.⁸⁵ The bill’s co-sponsor, Virginia Democrat Senator Tim Kaine, received just over $US80,000.⁸⁶

Lobbying in Kentucky

In January 2018, the Louisville Courier Journal reported that the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission records showed that the highest paid people working at the Kentucky Assembly were lobbyists paid by large corporations, including tobacco companies, to influence the State government.⁸⁷ The records named six lobbyists that listed Altria as a client:⁸⁸

• James “Jitter” Allen
• Linda T Magee
• John T McCarthy III
• John S Rainey Jr, Altria
• Michael (‘Mike’) Shea, Partner at lobbying firm Government Strategies

In 2018 Altria spent over $0.5 million lobbying the Kentucky legislature,⁸⁹ including over $330,000 lobbying against a tobacco tax increase.⁹⁰

Although the increase was voted through, the bill did not appear to include a planned tax on e-cigarettes.⁷⁸ Ben Chandler, President and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky (and a former member of Congress) said:

“We had it in the bill and it mysteriously disappeared on the last day of the session…we’re still not entirely sure where it went.” ⁷⁸

After a meeting between Senator McConnell and the Foundation in Kentucky in April 2019, e-cigarettes were included in McConnell’s ‘Tobacco Free Youth’ bill.⁸³

Lobbying in Colorado

In April 2019, The Colorado Sun revealed that Altria had hired “at least 10” lobbyists to stop a new bill approving an increase in tobacco tax, and a new nicotine tax which would include e-cigarettes, in the US state of Colorado.⁹¹ The bill aimed to raise money for health and education programmes in the state.⁹²

Altria paid for a website and social media accounts, styled as “No Blank Checks for Colorado”, which appeared at the same time the bill was announced and encouraged voters to contact local Democratic politicians. ⁹¹

In 2016, Altria had successfully lobbied against an amendment to Colorado state law, which proposed an increase in taxes on tobacco products in order to raise $300 million for health and education. The company contributed $16 million to the campaign against Amendment 72 (“No Blanks Checks in the Constitution”), which was rejected by Colorado voters by a small margin.⁹²⁹³

Public Lobbying Websites

Altria’s tobacco companies (Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., John Middleton, and Nat Sherman) have set up two websites “to provide our stakeholders with information on proposed legislation and to facilitate their communications with their elected officials”.⁹⁴ One website Tobacco Issues⁹⁵ provides a lobbying platform for tobacco retailers and other trade members. It details proposed legislation; gives information and arguments that can be against regulation (for example on tax); and provides tools for contacting media and lobbying decision-makers, including a model letter.⁹⁵ The other website, Citizens for Tobacco Rights,⁹⁶ performs a similar function for “adult tobacco consumers”⁹⁴ and includes instructions for using Facebook and Twitter to spread information and lobby politicians.⁹⁷

Funding Universities

The Commonwealth Times revealed in April 2019 that Altria had donated more than $2.5 million to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) between 2016 and 2019.⁹⁸ Altria is the biggest company in Richmond, and the university’s biggest corporate donor.⁹⁸ Recent donations include funding for students in STEM (Science, Technology and Maths) and business subjects, and $1 million to support the VCU School of Engineering.⁹⁹ This relationship has been longstanding with Altria regularly giving large sums to the university, including donations to the School of Education ($1 million in 2010),¹⁰⁰ and the da Vinci Center for Innovation ($1.5 million in 2012).¹⁰¹

A spokesperson for VCU said that the relationship with Altria, had been “very beneficial to a number of areas in the university,” including employing students after their studies.⁹⁸ In 2019 VCU banned smoking on campus, including the use of e-cigarettes and tobacco products.⁹⁸¹⁰²It also receives grants for smoke free activities from the American Cancer Society and the CVS Health Foundation, and hosted a Tobacco-Free Higher Education Summit in April.⁹⁸

VCU has been criticized, along with other American Universities including the University of Virginia, for accepting research funding from Philip Morris USA, an Altria company.¹⁰³ In 2006 a contract worth US$1.3 million was signed between Philip Morris and VCU.¹⁰³ According to the New York Times this required the company’s permission for researchers to publish their results or discuss their work, and gave patents and intellectual property rights to Philip Morris.¹⁰⁴

In 2007 Philip Morris USA donated $25 million to the University of Virginia for “independent research” to “help prevent youth smoking, improve the effectiveness of smoking-cessation efforts and reduce the harm caused by smoking.”¹⁰⁵ At the time, John T. Casteen III was president of the University of Virginia. He was appointed to Altria’s Board of Directors in 2010.

Funding Scientists

Funding scientists is a well-established strategy for the tobacco industry to influence the research agenda and create doubt about independent research and scientific consensus around smoking and health.¹⁰⁶
Altria has a history of funding scientists.

In 2006, UK newspaper The Guardian revealed that Altria had paid Steve Milloy, the founder of the website Junkscience.com (which was part-funded by the company), under contract “until at least the end of 2005” to discredit studies, among other things, on environmental tobacco smoke.¹⁰⁷

From 2010 to 2013, Altria also funded Brad Rodu, an outspoken proponent of tobacco harm reduction.¹⁰⁸ Using his blog (rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com), Rodu has criticised tobacco control experts in the US and the European Union (EU), and attempted to create doubt about the science behind regulations on potentially reduced risk products such as smokeless tobacco, snus, and e-cigarettes.¹⁰⁹ For example, in 2013, when the EU was revising its tobacco control measures in the Tobacco Products Directive, Rodu called the EU snus ban “indefensible and immoral”.¹¹⁰ A blogpost earlier that year heavily criticised a study by the Harvard School of Public Health demonstrating that smokeless tobacco users were likely to smoke, with Rodu discrediting the lead author as a “tobacco prohibitionist” and the study as being “tainted by unscientific bias”.¹¹¹

In 2012, Rodu praised Altria’s nicotine lozenge Verve in the Winston-Salem Journal, being quoted as saying “This is a positive development for American smokers, because it introduces them to another category of recreational smoke-free cigarette substitutes”.¹¹² The article failed to disclose that Rodu was, at that time, funded by Altria.¹⁰⁸

To learn more about the tobacco industry’s history of influencing science, visit our pages on how the tobacco industry commissioned research and reviews and created doubt about existing scientific evidence.

Newer Nicotine and Tobacco Products

As the harms from conventional products have become better understood, and tobacco control measures have been put in place, the cigarette market – from which tobacco companies make most of their profits – has started to shrink. To secure the industry’s longer-term future, transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have invested in, developed and marketed various newer nicotine and tobacco products.¹¹³

E-cigarettes

From 2013 Altria marketed its own brands of e-cigarettes but all had been discontinued by 2018. In February 2018, Altria’s CEO Martin J. Barrington told investors that Altria’s goal was to be “the U.S. leader in reduced risk products”.¹¹⁴¹¹⁵ Altria had an agreement with Philip Morris International to distribute its e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. In 2018 it bought a 35% share in JUUL Labs, an investment which proved to be increasingly problematic, largely due to accusations of aggressive marketing to youth.^{116 117}

On 1 April 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an administrative complaint alleging that Altria’s 2018 purchase of a 35% stake in JUUL Labs, and accompanying agreement not to compete for six years following the investment, violated federal antitrust laws.¹¹⁸¹¹⁹ Altria refuted the FTC allegations in the press, claiming that its stake in JUUL “does not harm competition”.^120121122 Altria revalued its original $12.8 billion investment twice between 2018 and 2020, as the valuation of JUUL dropped from $38 billion to $12 billion, and in April 2020 Altria’s share price was also falling.⁵⁹

Altria revalued its original $12.8 billion investment twice between 2018 and 2020, as the valuation of JUUL dropped from $38 billion to $12 billion, and in April 2020 Altria’s share price also fell.⁵⁹ This downward trajectory continued, dramatically so after the Food and Drug Administration banned all JUUL e-cigarettes from the US market in 2022.^123124125 In 2023, Altria abandoned its investment in JUUL and acquired another US e-cigarette company, NJOY.

• For details, see E-cigarettes: Altria and JUUL Labs

Heated Tobacco Products

In October 2022, Altria announced a new ‘strategic partnership’ with Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which included an agreement for Altria to commercialise JTI’s Ploom HTP in the US, via a new joint venture called Horizon Innovations LLC (Horizon).¹²⁶ This appeared to indicate a withdrawal from the agreement with PMI, with Altria stating that it did not “expect to have U.S. commercialization rights to the IQOS products” when Horizon’s exclusivity requirements go into effect.”¹²⁶

In early March 2023, Altria reported that it had exchanged its shares in JUUL e-cigarettes for HTP intellectual property rights.¹²⁷ Later that month, Altria reported that it had a new HTP product called SWIC in development.¹²⁸

Nicotine Pouches

In 2019 Altria announced that it was acquiring an 80% share in oral nicotine pouch On, produced by Swiss tobacco company Burger Sohne, which would be manufactured and marketed through a new Altria subsidiary, Helix Innovations.¹²⁹¹³⁰

• Other tobacco companies produce similar oral pouch products, with and without tobacco. For more information see Cigarette Companies Investing in Snus and Nicotine Pouches

Stake in Alcohol Industry

Altria owns wine producer Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and used to have a 27.1% share in SABMiller, one of the world’s largest brewers and bottling companies, before that company merged with AB InBev in 2016.¹³¹ Following the merger, AB InBev became the largest beer company in the world, of which Altria owns 10.2% as of January 2020.¹³²

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Philip Morris USA
• Philip Morris International
• E-cigarettes: Altria
• Funding Scientists
• SABMiller

Relevant Link

Altria homepage

References

The post Altria appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Roles on Imperial Tobacco’s Board

Clark was appointed Chair of the company’s Remuneration Committee in February 2019.¹³⁶
She is also a member of Imperial’s Succession and Nominations Committee.

Career in the Alcohol Industry

According to Clark’s LinkedIn profile, she has been the Managing Director of SABMiller Europe since 2012.¹³⁷
She joined SABMiller in 2003 as Corporate Affairs Director and has held several leading positions, including Director of SABMiller India Ltd (until 7 March 2013).¹³⁸

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Imperial Brands
• SABMiller

Relevant Link

Imperial Tobacco homepage

References

The post Sue Clark appeared first on TobaccoTactics.