213 



in the area ot smoking and health Obviousl>. without an adequate 

 weapons svstem. strategj ii severely limited. Where the weapons 

 inventory contains applications of scientific and engineering methods to 

 solve our technical problems, it becomes part of our offensive strategy 



Where the arsenal conuins protective shields against economic, 

 competitive, and political pressures, it is part ot our defensive strategy. 

 .A.S Mr Goldsmith expresses it. We must keep all bases covered. ' 



Our most important defeiuive weapons are in the category of product 

 development. Here the company and industry are facing two clearly 

 discemable trends, botb of them arising from the smoking and health 

 controversy. The first of these is the continuing demand to make cigarets 

 milder and tnilder, in effect to lower the tar and oicotine delivery per 

 cigaret. .Milder cigarets have lower taste impact, and our challenge is to 

 maintain and improve customer acceptance in the face of this trend. 



The second trend is the intensifying pressure to develop a "safe" 

 cigaret... The definition of cigaret "safeness" centers around a battery of 

 bio-essay tests, currently with animals but eventually with humans. Our 

 current program is to use a limited number of such tests to evaluate tlker 

 combinations, blend components, and even non-tobacco substitute 

 materials. We are working to be in a position to design a cigaret which 

 will meet "less hazardous" specifications if they are ever imposed on us 

 and at the same time to make a product which is attractive to the 

 smoker. I am pleased to report that we already have a number of such 

 prototypes on our shelves, with more to come in the future. 



Research and Development provides the Philip Morris weapons system: 

 your insurance agamst surprises that may undermme the pre-emmence of 

 our business. 



.A Philip Morris interoffice correspondence dated March 24, 1981, noted the 



following: 



Nicotine is a powerful pharmacological agent with multiple sites of action 

 and may be the most important component of cigarette smoke Nicotine 

 and an understanding of its properties are important to the continued 

 well beinc of our cigarette business since this alkaloid has been cited 

 often as 'the reason for smoking' and theories have been advanced for 

 'nicotine titration' by the smoker. Nicotme is known to have effects on 

 the central and peripheral nervous system aS well as influencing memory. 

 learning, pain perception, response to stress and level of arousal. 



It is not surprising that a compound with such a multitude of effects 

 would have properties which are considered undesirable by the anti- 

 smokmg forces. Claims are made that mcoiine in cigarene smoke can 

 induce chest pain and irregularities m cardiac rhythm when a person with 

 a compromised cardiovascular system smokes or when persons with 

 cardiac disease are exposed to high concentrations of side stream smoke. 



For these reasons our ability to ascertain the structural features of the 

 nicotuie molecule which are responsible for its vanous pharmacological 

 properties can lead to the design of compounds with enhanced desirable 

 properties (central nervous system effects) and minimized suspect 



