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Phillip Morris International, Inc. and smokeless-tobacco maker Swedish Match are teaming up to sell the 'snus' form of tobacco snuff worldwide, Bloomberg reported Feb. 3.
The companies will target emerging markets around the world — like Africa and Russia — and plan to put pressure on the European Union (EU) to lift the ban on snus, a Nordic-style smokeless tobacco.
“Markets like Russia will be the opportunity, where snus is already sold but with limited presence and knowledge,” said David Hayes, an analyst at Nomura, an investment banking company in London.
The EU said there is evidence that snus has helped some smokers quit and that using the product puts users at a lesser risk of developing lung cancer than smoking cigarettes.
However, the evidence is not enough for the EU to lift the ban because it's “not possible to extrapolate the patterns of tobacco use” to other countries, according to a EU health panel's report.
Published
February 2009