Owner of Marlboro Cigarettes Takes Over Company That Produces Inhalers For Asthma Patients

Cigarette giant Philip Morris International has taken control of UK inhaler maker Vectura despite objections from health care charities.

The producer of Marlboro and Parliament cigarettes said in a statement on Thursday that it had secured nearly 75% of Vectura’s shares, making it the majority shareholder. لعبة سباق خيول حقيقية

Owned by Billionaire Phillip Morris, PMI emphasised the deal was part of plans to diversify its portfolio beyond tobacco and nicotine, with an emphasis on “inhaled therapeutics. لعب البوكر ”

The nefarious deal hasn’t gone unnoticed drawing harsh criticism from the health community.

Leaders of the American Lung Association and American Thoracic Society said in a joint statement that the acquisition “is the latest reprehensible choice from a company that has profited from addicting users to its deadly products,”

“We are deeply concerned that PMI will use the inhalation services technologies developed by Vectura to make their tobacco products more addictive,”

“We are also deeply troubled that this company could further profit from the disease their products have caused by now selling therapies to the same people who were sickened by smoking PMI cigarettes.”

35 charities, public health experts and clinicians sent a letter to UK health minister Jo Churchill asking the government to intervene.

“We think it clear that this deal is not in the public interest and that it creates perverse incentives for [Philip Morris International] to increase harm through smoking so they might then profit again through treating smoking related diseases,” signatories including the British Lung Foundation and Cancer Research UK wrote in the letter.