PMIs 2025 results for cigarette shipments debunk ‘smoke-free world rhetoric

Some multinational tobacco companies claim they are ‘transforming’ by adopting harm reduction goals or, in the case of Philip Morris International (PMI), declaring a commitment to a ‘smoke-free’ future.1 However, subsequent developments, including the recent release of PMI’s 2025 full-year results,2 3 bring these claims into question.

After announcing its smoke-free world goal in 2016, PMI established the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW),4 which they claimed would accelerate efforts to reduce health impacts and deaths from smoking and ultimately eliminate smoking globally. In 2018, the FSFW launched the ‘Tobacco Transformation Index’ (TTI), a programme to measure transformation among leading tobacco companies.5 ‘Phasing out [of] high risk products’ (ie, smoked tobacco) was included as a core TTI metric.5 6

We have previously critiqued tobacco industry transformation7 which we defined as ‘demonstrating substantial, rapid and verifiable progress…

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