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. An regards smoking and health, it
in 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 eserged from the
research
conducted in our own laboratories about the role
of tobacco
suoke, if any, in human disease. Consequently, it
is considered
appropriate to re-define the role of Internal R&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.
The 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
14 D are thus Product Research ('internal") and
Suoking and Health
,'external').
PRODUCT RESEARCH
Projects in this field are designed principally to
anticipate and
seat:
(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 consuner demand.
Subjective smoke quality (taste, flavour, aroma,
texture.
harshness and related sensory aspects) play a key
role In
determining consumer choice. Ve suet research the
materials we
use in making our products and the constituents of
smoke to
detersine 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.
CC)
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CC)
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 1
November 1999


Increasingly our consumers will seek products
which offer novelty
0 r distinctiveness and this will range from
cigarette length,
tipping and packaging variants to radically new
products.
Cost considerations are increasingly important to
the consumer:
correspondingly our Product Research plan should
include
technologies in leaf processing and cigarette
manufacture to
minialse costs.
Consumers nay also respond to criticisms, whatever
their merits,
levelled against particular elements of our
products and we must,
therefore, anticipate and be ready to meet demands
for products
which have high or low levels of specific smoke
components. In
this area market research will give few pointers:
we must try to
give a broad coverage In our research programmes,
but, In the
end, give priority based on our reading of the
impact which the
scientific and anti-smoking lobby concerns say
have on the market
place.
In addition the social impact of smoking Is
receiving greater
attention and we must develop products which cater
for our
customers' sensitivities to the social aspects of
smoking and
which reduce sidestrean visibility, irritation,
smell etc.
Well-planned R&D will seek to anticipate consumer
demand rather
than await it. In some cases we nay even take the
decision to
make specific siodifications ahead of any external
stimulus but in
anticipation of a future need by introducing
innovations as
sleeper brands.
(2) Requirements of Regulatory Authorities
Although consuser demand may be stimulated by the
media raising
issues from unpredictable sources and the company
may 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 highest priority for Product Research. Projects
pursuing this
theme will Include the search for technology to
regulate whole
smoke deliveries, specific smoke components and
biological
activity (using techniques recognised as having
wide
acceptance). Again, we must work closely with
those bodies which
influence Governmental decisions In order to
ensure that our R&D
programme Is constructed to enable the Company to
respond. At
the extreme we suet be prepared for any external
research that
suggests a specific smoke modification to
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 must examine C=)
110
proposed new products, additives or process
changes by such CO
generally agreed cbemical/biological tests an may
be thought
necessary. recognising or anticipating legislative
or
administrative standards. CO
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 1
November 1999


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SMOKING AND HEALTH-RESEARCH
Unlike product research, most smoking and health
research is not
market driven. It nevertheless remains a
legitimate area of
enquiry for a responsible company, but it in
generally less
appropriate to an internal R&D effort.
The overall purpose of this research Is to
investigate the
effects of sucking 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
regulatory
authorities the association between sucking,
individual smoke
components, various diseases and normal health.
So far as the reuainder 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 claius made
against the
product.
We shall support new lines of research in similar
establishments
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
sonking or
individual smoke components and particular health
consequences.
A L Heard
29 October 1985
C=)
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BATCo document for Province of British Columbia I
November 1999