Science and technology can and must play a role in creating a smoke-free future. We are developing a portfolio of smoke-free products for adult smokers with the stated objective to decrease the impact smoking has on public health.
The only way to completely avoid the risk of smoking-related risks is to never start smoking. And for current smokers the best option is to quit. However, for smokers who would otherwise continue smoking, our goal is to offer smoke-free alternatives that have the potential to reduce the risk of smoking-related diseases compared to continued smoking.
Smokers switching to Platform 1 were exposed to lower levels of harmful chemicals compared to those who continued smoking
The results of our NCT01970995 clinical study
Clinical Assessment is a key step in PMI’s scientific assessment of its smoke-free products for determining whether these products fulfil their goal. Dedicated Reduced Exposure studies verify whether smokers who switch to one of our smoke-free products are actually exposed to lower levels of harmful chemicals compared to smoking cigarettes.
Exposure to these chemicals can be assessed through measuring the levels of certain compounds, known as Biomarkers of Exposure, in the blood or urine of the subjects.
A recently published study of our program confirmed that levels of these biomarkers in participants switching completely to Platform 1 were comparable to the levels of those who quit smoking for the 90 days of the study.
In both cases, the levels of the biomarkers remained well below those observed in participants who continued smoking during the study.
Our RRPs
Reduced-Risk Products (“RRPs”) is the term we use to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continued smoking. We have a range of RRPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment and commercialization. Because our RRPs do not burn tobacco, they produce far lower quantities of harmful and potentially harmful compounds than found in cigarette smoke.
