Rationale for R&D
Since its inception, Central R&D has had the
responsibility for
seeking products and processes which improve the
Company's
competitive performance and also for exploring the
smoking and
health question. As regards smoking and health, it
is apparent
that after more than 25 years of studying smoke
and of using
various biological models based on animals to
reflect biological
activity, no clear answers have emerged from the
research
conducted in our own laboratories about the role
of tobacco
smoke, if any, in human disease. Consequently, it
is considered
appropriate to re-define the role of internal I&D,
to re-evaluate
the distribution of resources and facilities
between internal and
external research and to set a new course for
Group R&D in the
future.
2 be new rationale for R&D recognises the two
separate targets,
identified above - but makes much clearer
distinction between
their purpose and also between work to be carried
out in-house
and that done, more appropriately, externally. The
two arms of
R&D are thus Product Research (-internal-) and
Smoking and Health
(-external").
PRODUCT RESEARCH
Projects in this field are designed principally to
anticipate and
meet:
(1) Consumer demand
(2) Requirements of regulatory authorities.
Because this work is product and market driven, it
is most
appropriately carried out by internal resources.
(1) Consumer Demand
The principal considerations in setting our
internal research
strategy are consumer acceptance and the ability
to anticipate
and to respond to consumer demand.
Subjective smoke quality (taste, flavour, aroma,
texture,
harshness and relaced sensory aspects) play a key
role in
determining consumer choice. We must research the
materials we
use in making our products and the constituents of
smoke to
determine their organoleptic effects. This will
enable us to
develop products which will meet changing tastes
and which will
give a high level of consumer acceptance and a
competitive
advantage.
U-1
CD
C__
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 1
November 1999


-2-
I=creasiagly our consumers will seek products
which offer novelty
or distinctiveness and this will range from
cigarezze length,
tipping and packaging variants to radically new
products.
Cost considerations are increasingly important to
-he consumer:
correspondingly our Product Research plan should
i=clude
technologies in Leaf processing and cigarette
manufaczure to
miaimise costs.
Consumers may also respond to criticisms, whatever
their merits,
levelled against particular elements of our
produc=s and we must,
therefore, anticipate and be ready to meet demands
for products
which have high or low levels of specific smoke
cam-ponenes. In
this area market research will give few pointers:
we must try to
give a broad coverage in our research programmes,
but, in the
and, give priority based on our reading of the
impac: which the
scientific and anti-smoking lobby concerns may
have on the market
place.
In addition the social impact of smoking is
rece174-ME greater
atzention and we must develop products which cater
for our
customers' sensitivities to the social aspects of
smoking and
which reduce sidestream visibility, irritation,
small etc.
Well-planned R&D will seek to anticipate consumer
de=and rather
than await it. In some cases we may even take the
decision to
make specific modifications ahead of any exterual
stimulus but in
anticipation of a future need by introducing
innova=ions as
sleeper braads.
(2) Requirements of Regulatory Authorities
Although consumer demand may be stimulated by the
media raising
issues from unpredictable sources and the company
nay take a view
on whether there is a scientific or a commercial
reason to
respond, Governmental requirements are, by
contrast, either
actually or effectively mandatory. Ability to
respond to
legislation or Government guidelines on cigarettes
is therefore
of big best priority for Product Research.
Projects pursuing this
theme will include the search for technology to
regulate whole
smoke deliveries, specific s2oke components and
biological
activity (using techniques recognised as having
wide
acceptance). Again, we must work closely with
those bodies which
Lufluence Governmental decisions in order to
ensure that our R&D
programme is constructed to enable the Company to
respond. At
the extreme we must be prepared for any external
research that
suggests a specific smoke modification is
desirable or essential
and that is accepted as such and implemented by
the relevant
authorities.
As is the case with any company in any industry,
we zuse examine
proposed new products, additives or process
changes by such
generally agreed chemical/biological tests as may
be thought
necessary, recognising or anticipating legislative
or
administrative standards.
C)
C)
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia I
November 1999


-3-
SMOKING AND HEALTH RESEARCH
Unlike produce research, most smoking and health
research is not
market driven. it nevertheless remains a
legitimace area of
enquiry for a responsible company, but it is
generally less
appropriate to an internal &&D effort.
The overall purpose of this research is to
investigate the
effects of smoking on the smoker. What we will do
in-house is to
critically review all scientific papers which
claim to associate
smoking, and individual smoke components, with
particular
diseases and health consequences and discuss with
regulazory
authorities the association between smoking,
individual smoke
components, various diseases and normal health.
So far as the remainder of the programme is
concerned, research
will be carried out externally by using the
facilities of the
leading research groups in universities, medical
departments and
institutes, to investigate the various claims made
againse the
product.
We shall support new lines of research in similar
establ.'shmencs
in areas which we feel are not being adequately
researched by
others and which may provide better information
about whether or
not there is in fact any relationship between
smoking or
individual smoke components and particular health
consequences.
A L Heard
29 October 1985
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia I
November 1999