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– If it seems strange to you that a Big Tobacco giant is going into the asthma inhalers business, you are not the only one. NPR notes that “health groups are suspicious” after the announcement Thursday that Philip Morris International has become the majority shareholder of Vectura, a British pharmaceutical company that manufactures such inhalers. CNN Business reports that PMI, maker of Marlboro, Parliament and VIrginia Slims cigarettes, now owns nearly 75% of the shares of Vectura, an acquisition that will help PMI move closer to its goal of generating more than half of its net income from products such as electronic cigarettes and respiratory medications, that is, products that do not generate smoke that can cause asthma attacks.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, calls the $ 1.4 billion takeover a “milestone”, noting that the company “is very excited about the vital role Vectura will play in our Beyond Nicotine strategy.” Not everyone is as enthusiastic as Olczak, especially public health experts and other major health groups. The move “is the latest objectionable move by a company that has profited from users’ addiction to its deadly products,” the American Lung Association and the American Thoracic Society said in a joint statement. “The prospect of someone potentially profiting from the sale of a product that harms the lungs and one that treats the lung disease it causes is more than worrying,” agrees the head of the European counterpart of ALA, according to CNN.
Another ethical problem that could arise, according to one letter co-signed by more than two dozen health advocacy groups: Vectura could be excluded from important health research and policy decisions as many universities, agencies and publications have rules prohibiting working with manufacturers tobacco, NPR rating; these repercussions seem to be happening already. PMI, meanwhile, says Vectura will continue to operate independently of PMI itself, although Olczak suggests the company will collaborate with Vectura scientists. (Read more stories from Philip Morris.)
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