Philip Morris had e-cigarette technology long before Hon Lik did: Not such a disruptive technology after all

E-cigarette advocates love to present e-cigarettes as a disruptive technology developed in China to compete with the big cigarette companies.  Lauren Dutra, Rachel Grana, and I looked in the previously secret tobacco industry documents and found that Phillip Morris had been working on what became e-cigarette technology since 1990 and had developed a functional system well before the Chinese
 
This work, summarized on our new paper “Philip Morris research on precursors to the modern e-cigarette since 1990” just published in Tobacco Control found
 
▸ Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, is often cited as, in 2003, inventing the modern e-cigarette, which some see as a disruptive technology to compete with conventional cigarette companies.
 
▸ Philip Morris has researched nicotine aerosol technology similar to the modern e-cigarette since 1990.
 
▸ Philip Morris developed nicotine aerosol technology to attempt to keep health conscious smokers from using nicotine replacement while circumventing regulation and restrictions on cigarettes.
 
▸ In the 1990s, concerns about triggering Food and Drug Administration regulation of cigarettes led Philip  orris to shift its focus towards pharmaceutical applications of aerosol technology
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▸ Rather than a disruptive technology, Philip Morris developed e-cigarette technology to complement, not  compete with, conventional cigarettes and evade tobacco control regulations.
 
Here is the abstract:
 
Background Use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is increasing rapidly. Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik is frequently cited as inventing the modern e-cigarette in 2003. However, tobacco companies have developed electronic nicotine delivery systems since at least 1963.
 
Methods We searched the University of California San Francisco Truth (formerly Legacy) Tobacco  Industry Documents beginning with the terms ‘electric cigarette’ and ‘electronic cigarettes’, ‘e-cigarette’, ‘smokeless cigarettes’, ‘nicotine aerosol’, ‘tobacco aerosol’, and ‘vaping’ and then expanded the search using snowball sampling. We focused our analysis on Philip Morris (PM) documents discussing technology that aerosolised a nicotine solution because these devices resembled modern e-cigarettes. Over 1000 documents were reviewed; 40 were included in the final analysis.
 
Results PM started developing a nicotine aerosol device in 1990 to address the health concerns and decreased social acceptability of smoking that were leading smokers to switch to nicotine replacement therapy. PM had developed a capillary aerosol generator that embodied basic e-cigarette technology in  1994, but in the mid-to-late 1990s focused on applying its aerosol technology to pharmaceutical applications because of uncertainty of how such products might affect potential Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products. In 2001, PM resumed its work on a nicotine aerosol device, and in 2013, NuMark (a division of Altria, PM’s parent company) released the MarkTen, a nicotine aerosol device.
 
Conclusions Rather than a disruptive technology, PM developed e-cigarette technology to complement, not compete with, conventional cigarettes and evade tobacco control regulations.
 
The full citation is Dutra LM, Grana R, Glantz SA. Philip Morris research on precursors to the modern e-cigarette since 1990. Tob Control Published Online First: 2016;  doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053406