Vectura and Philip Morris: the leopard has not changed its spots
The uniquely lethal nature of the tobacco industry’s products,1 the industry’s environmental impact2 and its incompatibility with human rights3 make the takeover of Vectura, a pharmaceutical company focused on inhaler technology, by tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI), extremely unwelcome. The idea that a company which, based on its market share and the global death toll, kills more than a million people every year4 should be allowed to expand into the delivery of healthcare has been widely condemned, including by the British Thoracic Society (BTS) (box 1), the European Respiratory Society5 and the US COPD Foundation, as well as the American Lung Association and American Thoracic Society who referred to the move as ‘reprehensible’.6 Box 1 ### British Thoracic Society Statement on Philip Morris International’s takeover of Vectura Vectura, a company that for over 20 years has worked to treat lung disease, is now part of the tobacco industry. This is inappropriate, unethical a