Vectura Group Plc could see sales go back after being taken over by Philip Morris International (PMI), with some doctors and patients saying they will switch brands, reports Bloomberg.

Having being purchased by tobacco company PMI, Vectura is now facing a potential backlash with some health-care providers and patients signalling they would switch to treatments from rivals such as AstraZeneca Plc or Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The company has been under intense scrutiny since the takeover and has already been dropped as a participant and sponsor from a major medical conference in Oxford, according to Bloomberg.
“It is a great shame that doctors are being put in the position of having to use an effective treatment owned by a tobacco company,” said Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Patient Olivia Fulton, who suffers from severe asthma and has been has been using GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s (GSK) Ellipta device that Vectura receives royalties for was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, “At my next hospital appointment I’ll be asking my consultant to switch. I do not want a tobacco company to profit from my ill health.”
A spokesperson for GSK said none of GSK’s inhalers or other products are purchased from or made by Vectura and minor royalty payments it makes, for patent licenses related to a company acquired by Vectura, expire in the next three years. PMI’s vice president of strategic and scientific communications, Moira Gilchrist said putting patients should come first and that successful lobbying efforts by a handful of doctors and pharmacists would set a dangerous precedent.