Chapters, based in Jakarta describes itself as an independent research institute which conducts studies on public policy related to public health and healthcare technology in Indonesia. Chapters has published and participated in discussion promoting electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products as innovative solutions, “significantly less harmful than continuing to smoke” and highlighting their potential for wider adoption.
In 2019, Chapters’ Chairman and Founder, Luthfi Mardiansyah, was appointed Independent Commissioner of PT HM Sampoerna, the local subsidiary of Philip Morris International. According to Sampoerna’s public filings, he is the Chairman of its Audit Committee as of 31 December 2024. Chapters lists SwissCham Indonesia among its partners, where PT HM Sampoerna is a founding member of SwissCham and Japan Tobacco International is a silver member.
In 2023, Mardiansyah congratulated Sampoerna for winning Gold in ‘Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’category at the HR Excellence Awards.
On 13 November 2023, the Chairman of Chapters attended awebinar on Tobacco Harm Reduction Strategies, organized in collaboration among CAPHRA, ATHRA-Australia, HARAP-Philippine, MSHR-Malaysia and PANTHR-Pakistan.
In July 2024, at the Asia Pacific Harm Reduction Forum co-hosted by AVI and KABAR in Jakarta, Chapters stated that,“technological developments also offer a variety of other alternative tobacco products that can effectively reduce the harm of smoking, including heated tobacco products, e-cigarettes or vapes, snus and others.”
Professor Tikki Pang (also known as Tikki Pangestu, seehere and here), is a senior global health consultant at Chapters and a proponent of harm reduction, criticizes legitimate international institutions’ scientific evidence–based position on harm reduction. On 17 August 2025, for example, at a webinar hosted by the Asia Forum on Nicotine, Pangcriticized the WHO, FCTC and the COP for their failure to acknowledge and support the use of safer alternative tobacco products as an important strategy and tool to end smoking.
At a recent tobacco industry sponsored event, Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF), in Brussels (6-8 Oct), Pang expressed strong disagreement with the WHO referring to its stance on harm reduction as a “landslide blocking the road” and to “find a detour” around its entrenched opposition. Contrary to the WHO FCTC ratified by 183 governments and the EU, Pang argued that the industry should be viewed as part of the solution, “We need to overcome this perception that the industry is the cause of the problem and not part of the solution.”
In March 2025, at the Global Forum on Nicotine, Pang criticised WHO that its “anti-vaping stance misleads governments and fuels misinformation” (6:25sec), that WHO is the “elephant in the room and all of us should keep hammering WHO” (9:30sec)
Pang previously worked as WHO’s Director of Research Policy and Cooperation – a position on infectious diseases and nothing to do with tobacco control – but left that position 13 years ago in 2012. However, he continues to be described by sources using this former title.