Professor Manuel Peitsch, the chief scientific officer for PMI, presents the latest IQOS research results, during a media conference at Lotte Hotel Seoul in Myeongdong, Thursday.

Philip Morris International (PMI), armed with the results of its latest non-clinical study, urged the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to clarify its conclusions on heat-not-burn cigarettes to help consumers avoid confusion.

In a news conference Thursday, the company presented its 18-month inhalation study in A/J mice to compare the effects of its IQOS aerosol with those of cigarette smoke and air. A/J mice develop lung emphysema and lung cancer in response to cigarette smoke exposure.

The company exposed female A/J mice to air, cigarette smoke or IQOS aerosol while exposing male mice to air or IQOS aerosol.

As a result, the company saw a significant increase in the incidence and multiplicity of lung carcinomas upon exposure to cigarette smoke compared to air exposure. However, frequency and multiplicity of lung carcinomas for mice exposed to IQOS showed significant reduction when compared to cigarette smoke-exposed mice and was similar to air-exposed mice.

The company concluded that IQOS reduces genetic damage and inflammation compared to continued smoking as well as incidence and multiplicity of lung carcinomas in a validated cancer animal model.

“To our knowledge, this is the first inhalation study which provides evidence on the potential impact of a smoke-free product on cancer development,” Manuel Peitsch, PMI’s chief scientific officer said. “This milestone study further strengthens the scientific evidence showing that switching to IQOS is a better choice for smokers than continuing to smoke cigarettes.”

Of course, cessation remains the best choice, Peitsch added.

With the results of the trial, Philip Morris Korea called for the Korean ministry to clarify its conclusions on heated tobacco products in June. The company said the ministry’s analysis, like other independent international studies, confirmed that the levels of the nine chemicals tested in the aerosol of heated tobacco products were on average 90 percent lower than the top five cigarette brands in Korea.

“Despite such findings, the ministry has chosen to focus its conclusion on measurements of “tar,” which the World Health Organization (WHO) has said is not a sound basis for regulation,” the company said. “Such a conclusion can be misleading to potential smokers thinking about changing to heat-not-burn cigarettes.”

PMI said it has been conducting extensive research to confirm the risk reduction potential of IQOS, with 18 non-clinical and 10 clinical studies. These studies assess not only the reduced emission of harmful chemicals but also the reduced exposure in humans and the reduced adverse health effects of switching versus continued smoking.

In addition to PMI’s research, there is a growing number of studies and reviews of available evidence whose findings are in line with PMI’s such as reviews published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.K. Government, and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, the company maintained.

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