Philip Morris has acquired an additional stake in the British manufacturer of medical inhalers Vectura, of which it now holds 29.16%. The purchase always took place on the market at 165 pence, in line with the offer launched by the tobacco giant on the English company. Philip Morris also specified that he does not want to increase his stake in this way for now.
Controversy over Philip Morris’s anti-nicotine project
The move is part of a broader trajectory, which sees the tobacco giant gradually abandon its reference sector. Philip Morris launched the “Beyond Nicotine” campaign, to detach his image from that of cigarettes. But, as Repubblica writes, “the paradox of a cigarette manufacturer buying a company that deals with diseases caused by nicotine is however unleashing a public counter-offensive: the British economy minister Kwasi Katenghash has given a mandate to the dicastery officials to investigate in depth the real intentions of SMEs. Thirty-five British health rights associations – including Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation – wrote to Vectura shareholders asking them to reject the sender “an offer that presents strong risks entrepreneurial issues and many ethical doubts »”.