I am responding to your letter of 14 January 2000 asking for written supplementary evidence from Philip Morris Europe SA ("Philip Morris") to the inquiry of the Health Committee into the tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking.

  Philip Morris is gathering the information necessary to provide the Commitee with the financial data referred to in your first question. The response will be provided on behalf of all affiliates of Philip Morris and we have not completed the effort to gather all of the necessary information. We will provide a response to this inquiry prior to the further hearing scheduled for 27 January 2000. As those Members of the Committee who met with us in Washington DC are aware, Philip Morris has devoted significant resources to research and development. Philip Morris's research and development budget for Accord, the new product that was shown to the Committee members in Washington, was 245.9 million US dollars from 1990 to 1998. In addition, the Committee is aware of Philip Morris' development of a denicotinized cigarette. From 1987 through 1991, Philip Morris spent approximately 300 million US dollars on the research and development budget for its denicotinized cigarettes.

  In relation to your second question I can confirm that neither Philip Morris SA nor any affiliate of Philip Morris was a party to litigation proceedings brought by certain tobacco companies in relation to the activities of the SCOTH Committee.

  You have asked whether Philip Morris believes that nicotine is addictive by reference to either of the DSM-IV or ICD 10 criteria. DSM-IV (the "American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual" (1994)) and ICD-10 ("International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Tenth Revision", World Health Organization, 1992) respectively use the terms "substance dependence" and "dependency syndrome" rather than addiction. We recognize that under the definition of "substance dependence" set forth in the DSM-IV cigarette smoking is a "substance dependence". Equally we acknowledge that in the IDC-10 smoking is considered a "dependence syndrome". Indeed, we have stated in our web site that "the World Health Organization has classified smoking as an addiction."

  Philip Morris does not wish to, and will not take issue with these messages. We believe that it is important that smokers and nonsmokers alike hear a single, consistent message on the issue of smoking and addiction, and we will not engage in a debate over the message provided by the public health authorities on this issue. Consistent with this principle, we will not debate the application of the criteria in the IDC-10 and the DSM-IV to smoking. As we stated in our submission to the Committee and in our Web Site (www.philipmorris.com), cigarette smoking is addictive as that term is most commonly used today. In my testimony before the Committee on 13 January 2000 I stated our view that cigarette smoking is addictive by most definitions commonly used today.

  You have also asked a number of questions in relation to smoking and certain diseases. Philip Morris believes that its views in relation to each of these questions were provided in its submission to the Committee. Further I stated our views in relation to these issues in my testimony on 13 January 2000. Our position is that there is an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers. Further, we have stated in our web site that "smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than non-smokers. There is no safe cigarette. These are and have been the messages of the public health authorities worldwide. Smokers and potential smokers should rely on these messages in making all smoking-related decisions."

  We believe that it is important that smokers and nonsmokers alike hear a single, consistent message on the issue of smoking and disease, and we will not engage in a debate over the message provided by the public health authorities on this issue. We believe it appropriate that public policy and regulation should be guided and controlled by these views. We therefore concur that from a public health perspective smoking causes disease in smokers.

20 January 2000