Gizelle Baker, Vice President of Global Scientific Engagement at Philip Morris International, recently visited Armenia and spoke with Regional Post about the company’s vision of a smoke-free future.
- Tell us a little more about what your job as Vice President of Global Scientific Engagement at Philip Morris International entails.
- Let me explain it by telling you how I got here. I hold a PhD in Biometry and Epidemiology and joined PMI to head up the Biostatistics and Life Sciences team within our Research and Development Unit. Before that, I had started my career in the pharmaceutical industry doing clinical trials for new drugs, first in women’s health, then oncology, and cardiovascular disease. As a non-smoker, I thought that smoking would eventually disappear… I guess I was younger and naive then. Everyone in the new generation knows that smoking kills, right? I assumed that the new generation would simply not smoke, knowing how harmful it was. My eye-opening moment came when I was working on a drug for small-cell lung cancer – a disease that is highly correlated with smoking. We were at an investigator meeting to kick off a new study and I was shocked to see what happened during the coffee break – three-quarters of the doctors in the room stepped outside to smoke! That was when I realized that sitting back and waiting for smoking to end would never work – here was a roomful of people who could see the harmful effects every day, and they still chose to smoke.
And this is why I started working at Philip Morris on tobacco harm reduction in the science team. There is this embedded belief within us that we actually need to do more as a company than just focus on research. We need to take our findings and actively go to all the markets where we sell; we have to talk. This is what our team does – we sit at the crossroads of science and communication. We have a team of more than 120 people doing this across the world. Our job is to take all the findings that our research and development units generate and explore how we can engage real people with it because, at the end of the day, this is all about understanding and informing human behavior.
- So your job has the inherent challenge of making these findings accessible to the public at large, turning it into something that makes sense for everyday people.
- Yes, and all while making sure that it remains accurate in how it is communicated. We always say that risk is a continuum – it’s always relative to something else. You have to find the right way of communicating accurately to people – use the right analogies, insert relevant caveats… It has to be easy to understand but not overly simplified.
- How does PMI ensure the scientific integrity and transparency of its research and communication?
- First of all we conduct rigorous studies to show that switching from smoking to our smoke-free products significantly reduces the risk of smoking-related diseases. Our research follows pharmaceutical industry standards and FDA guidance for modified-risk tobacco products. It includes lab tests, clinical studies with adult smokers, and assessments of public health impact—such as how smokers perceive and use the product in real life. We also monitor actual use once the product is on the market.
Our communication is always transparent and non-misleading to consumers. We are very clear that quitting is a best option. For those who do not quit, switching to smoke-free alternatives reduces exposure to harmful components of cigarettes smoke. We work together with the colleagues to ensure consistency of these messages across the whole PMI
- What are the key goals that Philip Morris is focusing on for the coming year?
- The goals we have for new products coming on the market are different compared to the goals we have for the products that are already out there. For the innovations, the key question is whether we have the necessary level of scientific evidence to confidently put those products in the market and get people to use them. How can I characterize the exposure? Do people understand the messaging? These are the priority questions we have for new products.
Once you’re in the market, you have to deal with the media, including social media. Importantly, consumers talk to each other all the time, which has now been compounded by social networks. Communication is no longer vertical, flowing down from experts to consumers. Now, people look at what drugs their neighbors are taking; their doctor’s opinion is no longer enough. Or they look for information online. So you actually have to put information in the places where people seek it. Misinformation travels much faster than real information, so how do we give information that same impetus? If all the accurate information is only in scientific journals, it will never be able to counter the misinformation out there. Our focus for scientific engagement is to empower people with information.
- Do you think we’re making progress towards a smoke-free future?
- Absolutely, and the numbers prove this. We are rapidly evolving as a company with 41% of total net revenues already generated by smoke-free products. Fewer people are smoking cigarettes today, that much is clear. How did mobile phones become popular? It started with a small group of users, but now these phones are everywhere. The technology has already been accepted. When we first came out with this product, it failed. Imagine the idea of spending time to “charge” a cigarette when you could instantly light one the old-fashioned way and have a smoke! The acceptance of behaviors related to other aspects of life, like charging devices in general, opened up an opportunity that we have used for these smoke-free products. For example, I think artificial intelligence does a better job of telling people about harm reduction today than some physicians because it uses all the available data.
People are more aware of their health and longevity is becoming a more popular topic, so I am very hopeful about the future.
- What do you see in terms of Armenia’s potential when it comes to young talent in your area of work?
- Armenia has a strong tradition of science and the key thing in this work is to start with science at the core. Don’t start with communications and then learn the science. And I think young people in Armenia should be open to failure. We learn a lot from our failures in science. You should dig apart any failed studies to see what you can learn from it. You should be open and learn. It’s fine to come to the table with everything you know, but you have to remember that any current knowledge comes from building blocks of past knowledge. Compared to what we know today, there is always more out there that we do not know. We have to be open to the next piece of learning, which can even mean a change of direction from our original plans. There is an amazing PMI center in Armenia, one of only three in the world, and I see huge potential here. I have been to most of our markets, but I have been impressed with what I have seen in Armenia.
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