Philip Morris first starting selling tobacco products to the public all the way back in 1847, but, more than 170 years later, the company has read the tea leaves and the future is “smoke-free.”
This is pretty bad for business (although the company still rakes in around $28 billion a year)—and, as it turns out, its business is pretty bad for customers’ health. So the new idea is to help people with lung and heart conditions like ones caused by smoking.
Bitterly ironic? Maybe, but Philip Morris is putting its money where its mouth is: This summer, the cigarette maker has put $1.45 billion on the table for inhaled drug maker Vectura (though that is not going smoothly), and is now looking to branch out more with a new deal to buy OtiTopic.
The U.S. respiratory drug development company comes with a late-stage inhalable acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)—better known by the brand name Aspirin—specifically designed for acute myocardial infarction, aka heart attacks. The therapy is aimed at those at an intermediate to high risk for myocardial infarction.
The inhaled therapy, to be known as Aspirhale, works as a dry powder inhalation of ASA delivered through a new, self-administered aerosol.
OtiTopic is hoping to finish up testing ASAP and, with the might of Philips behind it, file with the FDA for approval next year.
Early studies have shown the inhaled system “catalyzed peak plasma concentration and the desired pharmacodynamic effect, i.e., inhibition of platelet aggregation in two minutes compared with 20 minutes for coated chewable aspirin,” the company said in a statement.
“This speed is unprecedented and has significant potential implications for improving the survival of patients at risk of heart attacks,” it added.
No financial terms were included for the deal.
“This transaction aligns well with OtiTopic’s goals of unlocking what we believe to be a significant opportunity in inhaled therapeutics science,” said Kambiz Yadidi, CEO of OtiTopic. “We are entering this transaction to accelerate Aspirhale’s FDA filing, with the goal of delivering innovative therapies for people with intermediate to high risk for myocardial infarction.”
For its part, Philip Morris is pursuing a so-called "Beyond Nicotine" strategy to branch out from cigarettes into fields such as respiratory drug delivery and "selfcare wellness." It's banking on that strategy to deliver at least $1 billion in net revenues by 2025, CEO Jacek Olczak said in a statement a few weeks back.
According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease, which can cause heart attacks, accounts for about 800,000 U.S. deaths every year, making it the leading cause of all deaths in the U.S. Of those, nearly 20% are due to cigarette smoking, according to the FDA.
Philip Morris has pledged to become more of a life sciences company and to one day stop selling cigarettes; it does, however, feel a little like an arsonist selling fire damage insurance.