The new research foundation will be headed by former WHO official Derek Yach.
By NACS Online
Philip Morris International announced this week that it will pledge $1 billion to support the start of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, an independent nonprofit created to ultimately eliminate smoking worldwide, Bloomberg reports.
According to the foundation’s website, the group “collaborates with other nonprofit, advocacy and government organizations to advance smoking cessation and harm-reduction science and technology. It also serves as a convener of research, dialogue and ideas to reduce smoking globally, while monitoring, evaluating and helping to address the impact of reduced smoking rates on agriculture and economics.”
Derek Yach, who worked for the World Health Organization, will head the foundation. Philip Morris will spend around $80 million yearly over the next dozen years for the program, beginning in 2018. “There is a unique opportunity today to significantly change the health trajectories of the millions of men and women who continue to smoke by offering them a better choice,” said CEO André Calantzopoulos with Philip Morris, in a statement.
“The foundation is a welcome driver of change, at a time when a smoke-free future is clearly on the horizon. We will welcome its recommendations to accelerate smoker adoption of less harmful alternatives.”
