The Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris International (PMI) plans to take over the British pharmaceutical company Vectura, which specializes in inhalation therapies for lung diseases, for a good billion pounds (almost 1.2 billion euros).

PMI is offering £ 1,050 million for South West England company founded in 1999;

the supervisory board recommended the acceptance of the purchase offer.

Philip Plickert

Business correspondent based in London.

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The planned takeover has also sparked sharp criticism from politicians in Great Britain of the alleged “hypocrisy” of the American tobacco company.

Over the weekend, the opposition called on the Johnson administration to intervene.

The Vectura Group was founded in 1999 and today employs 400 people.

The company, which is listed in the FTSE250 average index on the London Stock Exchange, manufactures inhalation devices and medicines for people with asthma and other lung diseases.

Vectura recently agreed a £ 958 million takeover with private equity group Carlyle, but Philip Morris is now offering more.

After the PMI offer, Vectura's share price jumped 14 percent.

Liberals and Labor are critical

For Philip Morris, the Vectura purchase is part of the recently announced strategy of becoming a “health and wellness” company.

So far, however, PMI has by far made the most revenue and profit from the sale of cigarettes (brands: Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, L&M).

Although its stock price has stagnated for the past five years, PMI continues to be one of the most valuable companies on the New York Stock Exchange.

The market value is more than $ 150 billion.

Sales fell from $ 78 billion to $ 76 billion last year.

PMI has announced that it will generate at least one billion in sales with products “beyond tobacco and nicotine” by 2025.

The purchase of Vectura is now also serving this goal.

The largest investment by PMI beyond cigarettes so far is the tobacco heater IQOS ("I quit ordinary smoking").

These tobacco heaters already accounted for up to a third of sales in the most recent quarter.

PMI wrote that the goal of making money beyond tobacco and nicotine is based on a "strong understanding of aerosolization and respiratory technology".

Combine "expertise in life sciences and inhalation technology, natural ingredients and experience in how to change consumer behavior".

Vectura should remain an independent company. In the UK, the Liberal Democratic leader said Philip Morris had "done absolutely nothing for people's health" and that it would be "absolutely wrong" for the company to profit from lung disease deals. The Labor Party's health spokesman called on Economics Minister Kwasi Kwarteng to block the takeover.