Philip Morris Usa

Philip Morris USA said a Florida appellate court affirmed a jury's 2003 decision that ordered it and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. to pay damages to a former smoker with lung disease. The jury awarded about $6.54 million to John Eastman but found Eastman, a former smoker with a respiratory illness, to be 50% at fault. It found Philip Morris USA, the largest U.S. cigarette maker, liable for 40% of the damages, or about $2.

A coalition of oil interests, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and other business interests has poured at least $480,000 into a mail and television campaign to oppose one of the eight Democrats competing in the June 8 primary for an open Venice/South Bay Assembly seat. Groups funded by the Civil Justice Assn. of California and two medical malpractice insurance organizations have spent the money to defeat Betsy Butler, a former fundraiser for two major environmental groups and the Consumer Attorneys of California.

Philip Morris USA said it would introduce a moist smokeless tobacco product this fall under the Marlboro brand, selling it first in the Atlanta area. The Richmond, Va.-based company will sell the spitting tobacco in original and wintergreen flavors for about $3 a can. It is part of a wider effort to sell more smokeless products in the U.S. as cigarette consumption declines because of health concerns, smoking bans and price increases. Philip Morris USA is owned by New York-based Altria Group.

A judge has denied a request by Walgreen Co. to halt a new San Francisco law that bars pharmacies from selling cigarettes and other tobacco products. The law, scheduled to go into effect today, was passed in July. Walgreen says it plans to appeal the decision issued Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Peter Busch. Mayor Gavin Newsom says he hopes Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen will reconsider its appeal, saying people should use pharmacies to improve their health and not to buy cancer-causing cigarettes.

Philip Morris USA is raising prices on its lowest-cost cigarette brand by 4 cents a pack, saying the move will reduce the price edge that discount brands have over full-priced smokes such as its Marlboro brand.

James Morgan, the president and chief executive of Philip Morris USA, who said cigarettes are no more addictive than candy, will retire on Nov. 1. Philip Morris, the world's top cigarette maker, said Morgan, 55, had been considering the move for months.

Big Tobacco has less treasure in its coffers than commonly imagined, the head of Philip Morris' U.S. cigarette business Tuesday told jurors weighing massive court damages against cigarette makers.

A Florida appeals court declined to allow smokers in the state to sue Philip Morris USA as a single class to recover the purchase price of Marlboro Lights and Ultra Lights cigarettes, Philip Morris said. The smokers had sued Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc., to recover the amount they had spent on the cigarettes because, they said, they were deceived into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer than regular ones.

A New York jury told Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA to pay $18.8 million to a woman who said smoking gave her lung cancer, her lawyer said. Norma Rose, 72, and her husband, Leonard, won the verdict, which includes $17.1 million in punitive damages, from Philip Morris, the biggest U.S. cigarette maker, said Stuart Finz, the couple's lawyer.

A City Council committee Monday delayed accepting a $50,000 donation to the Los Angeles Police Department from cigarette maker Philip Morris USA after Councilman Jack Weiss said he wanted more information. Some groups have said the money raises questions about whether corporations believe they can get better police service by paying for it. But Councilman Bernard C.

Altria Group Inc., the U.S. leader in cigarettes, wants to be No. 1 in smokeless products too. The owner of the nation's biggest cigarette seller said Monday that it would buy UST Inc., the maker of Skoal and Copenhagen, in a $10.4-billion deal that is part of the wider consolidation of the global tobacco industry. Observers say Lorillard, which was spun off from Loews Corp. in June, could be next on the list of potential targets. "It's going to put pressure on everybody else to consolidate," said Sachin Shah, an analyst at ICap Equities.

Philip Morris USA, the nation's No. 1 tobacco company, said Monday that it had ended test markets of Marlboro-branded cigarettes that use a high-technology filter to potentially reduce the risk of smoking. The operating company of Altria Group Inc. said it pulled the plug on Marlboro Ultra Smooth and Marlboro Ultra Light cigarettes, which used an activated carbon filter to deliver nicotine with potentially less exposure to carcinogens than in conventional cigarettes.

Philip Morris USA effectively raised the price on Marlboro, Basic, L&M and most of its other cigarette brands by 9 cents a pack. The company, a unit of Altria Group, raised the price on Marlboro, Basic and L&M by reducing the promotional discount given to wholesalers on those brands. Reductions in promotional discounts are typically passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. The average price for a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, the top-selling U.S. brand, had been $4.27 in the first quarter.

The nation's largest tobacco company knew as early as the 1970s that smokers of "light" cigarettes took larger puffs that delivered greater amounts of tar, according to a newly released memo. The 1975 Philip Morris USA correspondence was released by the Senate Commerce Committee in advance of a hearing today examining the rating system that allows tobacco companies to market cigarettes as regular, light or ultra-light.

With waning cigarette sales due to health concerns, smoking bans and price increases, Philip Morris USA Inc. is staking its future on a new research center meant to develop products to reduce the risk of tobacco use. The addition of the $350-million, 450,000-square-foot Center for Research and Technology nearly doubles the company's research space and gives its scientists and engineers one facility to collaborate on new projects.

Philip Morris USA said it would introduce a moist smokeless tobacco product this fall under the Marlboro brand, selling it first in the Atlanta area. The Richmond, Va.-based company will sell the spitting tobacco in original and wintergreen flavors for about $3 a can. It is part of a wider effort to sell more smokeless products in the U.S. as cigarette consumption declines because of health concerns, smoking bans and price increases. Philip Morris USA is owned by New York-based Altria Group.

The Supreme Court agreed to let Philip Morris USA delay paying $10.5 million in damages to a former smoker in Glendale while the tobacco company contested the amount. The company was sued by Patricia Henley, who smoked for 35 years starting at age 15 and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997. In September, the California Supreme Court refused to reduce the award, which Philip Morris claimed was excessive. The Richmond, Va.-based unit of Altria Group Inc.

Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA unit said it filed federal lawsuits against 197 retailers in eight states that allegedly sold counterfeit versions of the company's cigarettes. The suits bring to 612 the number of retailers Philip Morris has taken to court since September. Past suits resulted in 43 consent judgments in which retailers agreed to stop selling counterfeit cigarettes and to provide information about their suppliers. * Altria Group Inc.'

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a class-action lawsuit against Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc., should not be decided in federal court, handing a defeat to the tobacco company. The justices unanimously reversed a ruling that allowed Philip Morris to transfer the lawsuit to federal court from the Arkansas state court where it initially was filed.

A California jury found Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA and Reynolds American Inc. liable in the death of a 40-year-old smoker and awarded $2.4 million to the smoker's family, the Tobacco Products Liability Project said. The verdict came Wednesday in a wrongful death suit brought by the family of Leslie Whiteley, who died of lung cancer, the anti-smoking group said in a statement. Punitive damages against Reynolds American's R.J.