Philip Morris looks to capitalise on alternatives to e-cigarettes

Philip Morris International Inc plans to leverage the increasing demand for alternatives to traditional smokes like e-cigarettes with a new Marlboro-branded product that would heat tobacco rather than burn it AP reports.

The second-biggest tobacco company in the world, detailed its plans for releasing  Marlboro HeatSticks in  Japan and Italy later this year, with follow up expansion in 2015.

The products mark a bid at improving heating technologies after the failure of technologies first introduced in the 1990s.

The short, cigarette-like sticks are heated to maximum of 660 degrees Fahrenheit in a hollow pen-like device called iQOS to create a tobacco-flavored nicotine vapour.

Unlike popular e-cigarettes that use liquid nicotine, HeatSticks contain real tobacco, which would attract smokers, according to the company's calculations.

It is one among the reduced-risk products Philip Morris International planned to test with the industry diversifying beyond traditional cigarettes as demand declines.

Products like the HeatSticks "represent a potential paradigm shift for the industry, public health and adult smokers," CEO Andre Calantzopoulos said during an investor day presentation Thursday.

The development of the products has cost the company around $2 billion over more than a decade.

The company expects the products to boost its profit by $700 million when sales reach 30 billion units.

Meanwhile, the company is seeking to challenge Europe's new laws on tobacco products, as tobacco companies and governments clash over tighter regulation, Reuters reported.

The world's biggest international cigarette company said it filed papers on Friday in an English court calling for a review of the EU's Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) by the Court of Justice of the EU.

The directive, which took effect last month, calls for a range of measures including pictorial and text health warnings across 65 per cent of tobacco packages, broader track and trace capabilities to fight the illicit trade in cigarettes as also a ban on menthol cigarettes following a four-year phase-out period.

Philip Morris is seeking a review as to whether the directive was in compliance with EU treaties in three areas.

The first is whether the ban on menthol disrupted the internal market, the second whether the apparent ban on "truthful and non-misleading claims" on packages hurt consumers' rights to information, and the third whether the delegation of powers to the ED complied with EU treaties.