India sticks to e-cigarette ban in snub for Philip Morris

NEW DELHI/LONDON: India has ruled out relaxation of a ban on e-cigarettes that would have allowed heat-not-burn tobacco products, dealing a blow to a lengthy private lobbying campaign by Philip Morris International for New Delhi to permit such devices.

India banned e-cigarettes, including heated tobacco products, in 2019. With more than 100 billion cigarettes sold annually, it is the seventh-largest cigarette market by volume, where tobacco kills more than a million people a year.

The world’s most valuable tobacco firm, Philip Morris had hoped India could be a key market for its heated tobacco device, IQOS, which the company says is less harmful to health than smoking.

“The government of India is not considering revoking, amending or relaxing this ban,” the health ministry said in response to Reuters queries about the lobbying by Philip Morris.

“India remains committed to evidence-based tobacco control and cessation measures,” it said in a statement, adding that the law on e-cigarettes explicitly prohibits heat-not-burn devices, and that situation will stay.

A Reuters review of confidential company letters from 2021 to 2025 shows the Marlboro-maker privately lobbied top Indian officials and a parliamentary panel to consider the science behind devices like IQOS, research it and exempt heat-not-burn products from the ban.

Philip Morris executives also met many state government officials in Davos in January to discuss how the company can create long-term value in the tobacco sector, using products such as IQOS, photographs on LinkedIn show.

A spokesperson for Philip Morris did not comment on the ministry’s statement, but said it “regularly engages with governments around the world, including at major international forums such as Davos, to discuss how smoke-free products can greatly advance public health.”

Reuters is the first to report India’s decision and details of Philip Morris’ lobbying.

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Jacek Olczak, the firm’s chief executive, said he had engaged with various people in India, adding that it was “illogical” for the market to be closed to smoking alternatives such as heated tobacco and vapes, but not cigarettes.

It is not clear if any other company is lobbying India against the ban on e-cigarettes. Philip Morris says it has a share of 76% of the global market for heated tobacco products.

IQOS BOOM
Philip Morris had a 7.6% share of India’s cigarette market in 2024, up from just 1.75% in 2019, Euromonitor estimates.

Its rival, British American Tobacco owns a stake in India’s ITC (ITC.NS), opens new tab, which dominates the market.

Andrei Andon-Ionita, analyst at Jefferies, said an IQOS launch in India would have given PMI a way to capture a far bigger slice of the market, offering the “next leg of the growth story” for the product as other key markets mature.

Launched in 2014, IQOS has more than 35 million users worldwide and is Philip Morris’ flagship smoking alternative, which it says has been a hit in countries like Japan.

Some regulators, such as the U.S. FDA have concluded that IQOS can benefit public health if smokers use it instead of cigarettes, but the World Health Organization has warned of risks posed by heated tobacco.

India’s 2019 ban shut the door on many products from companies such as vape maker Juul and Philip Morris.

Olczak said India’s decision to ban smoking alternatives ignores science and data showing that smoking rates decline when alternatives are available, however.Shares were broadly steady in premarket trading on Wednesday.

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About 151 billion IQOS heated tobacco units were sold last year in 79 markets.

Philip Morris ran a four-year-long campaign to push Indian officials and a parliamentary panel on health to allow heated tobacco devices, letters show.

In one 2023 letter, Ankur Modi, then its chief strategy officer, asked India to think about tackling smoking-related harm via alternatives, “similar to harm reduction policy for HIV/AIDS”, which involves measures such as condom promotion.

The letters also proposed bringing Philip Morris scientists and experts, such as former US FDA officials, to present data and global experience to show how such devices “improve lives”.

“PMI is deeply committed to, and invested in the future of lndia,” the company said in a November letter to the health secretary, calling for a review of scientific data on heated tobacco products by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

In a statement, state-run ICMR told Reuters it was “not considering or undertaking any research on heated tobacco products”.