“..It will be a small comfort if we let prohibitionists have it their way." - Grégoire Verdeaux, senior vice-president of external affairs, PMI. Photo credit: PMI
Philip Morris International (PMI) is running a significant lobbying campaign to stop countries from cracking down on vapes and related products as part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), reports The Guardian.
Staff members were instructed to investigate "any connection, any lead, whether political or technical" before COP10 which takes place next month in Panama, according to an email sent by PMI's senior vice-president of external affairs Grégoire Verdeaux last month and seen by the Guardian. The WHO FCTC agenda, according to him, is a "prohibitionist attack" on smoke-free products.
In the email, Verdeaux said, “The agenda and meeting documents have been made public for the main part. Unfortunately they reconfirmed every concern we had that this conference may remain as the biggest missed opportunity ever in tobacco control’s history … WHO’s agenda is nothing short of a systematic, methodical, prohibitionist attack on smoke-free products.”
PMI announced in 2016 that it was transitioning away from cigarettes and set a goal to do so with heated tobacco products, e-vapor products, and nicotine pouches.
According to Verdeaux, if "reasonable, constructive outcomes" are not achieved, "WHO will have irreversibly compromised the historic opportunity for public health presented by the recognition that smoke-free products, appropriately regulated, can accelerate the decline of smoking rates faster than tobacco control combined."
However, he continued, "At this stage we are not where we would like to be - in terms of intelligence, positions, and delegations." He said that for the previous 18 months PMI had worked to "leverage the right support" at the meeting, adding that they were able to "move the needle" when they were "truly determined" and urging, "There is still time."
"So this message is to ask you, as lead of the EA [external affairs] function, to do that last-minute effort," the email said. ."Every country, regardless of its size, matters." According to Verdeaux, PMI was prepared "to put up any connection, any lead, whether political or technical, including those from our local business partners," who were often "mission critical in our smaller markets."
Despite the tobacco industry not being allowed to participate in COP10, Verdeaux said he would still be in Panama "to publicly denounce the absurdity of being excluded from it while PMI today" was undoubtedly the most helpful private partner WHO could have in the fight against smoking."
"Whatever happens, we are on the right side of history," he wrote in the email's closing. "But it will be a small comfort if we let prohibitionists have it their way."