The US Roll-Out of IQOS devices rests on the approval for the IQOS Iluma. Photo credit: Aphis Marta, Creative Commons 4.0.
Philip Morris International (PMI) c.e.o. Jacek Olczak said the company will launch its IQOS devices in four cities in two unnamed US states from 2024, reports Reuters, but a national launch won't happen until PMI is given the go-ahead to market the most recent version, the IQOS ILUMA. According to Olczak, PMI plans to apply for approval in October and expects it from 2025, to be followed by a national roll-out of ILIMA in phases.
Investors had been expecting IQOS’s US launch to be in May 2024, but it now looks to be delayed.
Olczak also hinted that PMI’s expansion into non-nicotine products is no longer a priority. The company recently abandoned its target of US$1 billion in net revenues to come from sales of these products by 2025.
According to Olczak, PMI will instead concentrate its efforts on IQOS and its ZYN nicotine pouch, adding that PMI had been overly optimistic on the acceptance of big tobacco companies operating outside of nicotine.
PMI aims for more than two thirds of its net revenues to come from smoke-free products by 2030, up from 50% in 2025. ZYN and other oral nicotine products in the US are targeted to help drive an expected US$2 billion in revenues there in 2024, even before IQOS ILUMA.
Reuters also previously reported that PMI has registered new lobbyists in at least 19 US states this year, and that in at least three states – Georgia, Colorado, and Oregon – the lobbying activity would be focused on heated tobacco products.
Corey Henry, PMI's director of US communications, told Reuters the company is expanding its government affairs capability across the nation as part of the normal course of business, and that “viewing PMI's work across all regions of the US strictly through the lens of potential launch geographies for our electrically heated tobacco system is incorrect.”