Altria (NYSE:MO) started developing its new tobacco device more than a decade ago — as smoking rates declined but long before vaping took hold in the U.S.
It took another two years for regulatory clearance. But Altria is finally launching Iqos in the U.S. this week, and experts say the company’s timing — though coincidental — couldn’t be better.
Iqos isn’t a vaping device nor is it a cigarette. It heats tobacco, but doesn’t burn it, giving users the same rush of nicotine as smoking with fewer toxins. It also comes amid public panic over an outbreak of a deadly lung disease that’s killed at least 18 people. U.S. health officials have traced the illnesses back to vaping.
Iqos is formally being launched Friday in Atlanta where Altria’s opened an airy new Iqos store with tall glass windows and light wood in a corner of Atlanta’s Lenox Square mall.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized its sale in the U.S. in April, setting strict marketing guidelines aimed at ensuring only adult smokers use Iqos, not kids.
Altria and Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) started developing Iqos when the companies were still combined. PMI led the work once it was spun off from Altria in 2008. It launched Iqos in Nagoya, Japan, and Milan, in 2014 and has since introduced it in 49 markets, with Atlanta being the latest.
Shares in MO dipped 12 cents at Friday’s open to $40.72
