SEATCA Tobacco Industry Monitoring

Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance

Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA)

By /

Updated 6 May 2025

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is a regional alliance of organizations promoting electronic smoking devices (ESDs) like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. CAPHRA makes no mention of the documented harms associated with ESDs[1], and instead amplifies transnational tobacco company Philip Morris International’s (PMI) message of ESDs being “safer alternatives” to combustible cigarettes.[2]

According to their website, CAPHRA’s mission is to spread information about and advocate for the right of adult nicotine consumers to use ESDs.[3] CAPHRA champions the concept of “tobacco harm reduction”[4] to reduce smoking-related deaths. The Coalition fields a so-called Expert Advisory Group which is comprised of medical and scientific professionals and researchers from the region who support tobacco harm reduction.

CAPHRA consists of 13 members from 9 countries/jurisdictions:

Nancy Loucas, co-founder and director of AVCA, is also CAPHRA’s Executive Coordinator. She is a regular speaker at an annual tobacco industry conference, the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF), most recently in Athens in 2024. Since its inception in 2008, GTNF has been sponsored by major transnational tobacco control companies including PMI, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Altria, and Japan Tobacco International.[5] 

Through a website called COPWATCH, CAPHRA maintains a campaign to oppose and attempt to discredit the global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the legitimate process of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the WHO FCTC. In November 2019, CAPHRA released a manifesto in which they called the WHO FCTC’s approach to ESDs outdated. This manifesto contained misleading and incorrect claims, including “vaping is dramatically safer than cigarettes and has helped millions quit smoking” and “e-cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than smoking.”[6],[7] At the next GTNF in Brussels in October 2025, the WHO FCTC is on the agenda to be discussed in the context of tobacco harm reduction.

CAPHRA used to be an affiliate organization of another front group, the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO). INNCO has previously received a grant from the Global Action to End Smoking (GAES). GAES was formerly known as Foundation for a Smoke-Free World and remains fully funded by PMI. In 2021, CAPHRA collaborated with INNCO to criticize and lobby against the Ninth Session of the COP. CAPHRA is no longer listed on the INNCO website as of February 2023.

In September 2023, a few months prior to the Tenth Session of the COP, CAPHRA urged Parties to reject resolutions that would ban or heavily restrict ESDs, under the pretext of protecting the health and rights of smokers.[8]

In advance of the Eleventh Session of the COP to be held in Geneva in November 2025, CAPHRA has been dialing up the pressure on Parties in the region to make ESDs more available and accessible. In April 2025, CAPHRA criticized the Philippine government for what it called an inconsistent and “punitive approach to vaping”, and asked authorities to recognize “vaping’s role in tobacco harm reduction.”[9]

A week later, CAPHRA called on the Malaysian government to reject what they called a “counterproductive ban on ESDs” and continued to attack the WHO’s position against tobacco harm reduction.[10] This call came in response to Malaysia’s Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852) which came into force in October 2024, imposing state-level bans and stricter nicotine limits. CAPHRA urged the Malaysian government to adopt “risk-proportionate regulations”, which is a term used and promoted by PMI.[11]

CAPHRA member ECST in Thailand, via its president Asa Saligupta, has also challenged the country’s ESD ban by claiming that using ESDs is safer than smoking combustible cigarettes and that vaping can help smokers to quit cigarettes.[12] In a 2020 article published in BMJ Journals, Patanavanich and Glantz have documented how ECST worked in parallel with PMI to promote the legalization of ESDs; they state that although ECST has denied any financial relationship with the tobacco industry, it has been linked to PMI through INNCO and GAES.[13]

[1] Not safer (toxic emissions and health risks), ESD Resource Hub, https://seatca.org/not-safer-toxic-emissions-and-health-risks/

[2] Philip Morris says cigarette sales in many places could end in a decade and they’ve got a ‘safer’ product to replace them, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/philip-morris-says-cigarette-sales-in-many-places-could-end-in-a-decade-and-theyve-got-a-safer-product-to-replace-them-2020-07-10

[3] Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates, https://caphraorg.net/who-we-are-2025/

[4] SEATCA policy position on tobacco harm reduction, https://timonitor.seatca.org/seatca-policy-position-on-tobacco-harm-reduction/

[5] Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum, https://www.tobaccotactics.org/article/global-tobacco-and-nicotine-forum/#:~:text=Sponsored%20by%20Tobacco%20Companies,-Image%201%3A%20The&text=Since%20its%20beginning%20in%202008,by%20big%20transnational%20tobacco%20companies.

[6] CAPHRA Manifesto November 2019, https://caphraorg.net/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/caphra-manifesto-november-2019.pdf

[7] E-cigarettes: Public Health England’s evidence-based confusion, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)00042-2/fulltext

[8] Countries asked to reject measures that will deprive billion smokers of better alternatives, https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1833683/countries-asked-to-reject-measures-that-will-deprive-billion-smokers-of-better-alternatives

[9] CAPHRA criticizes Philippine government’s inconsistent vaping policies, calls for evidence-based approach, https://www.asiapacificnewsnetwork.com/article/805616372-caphra-criticises-philippine-government-s-inconsistent-vaping-policies-calls-for-evidence-based-approach

[10] Coalition Urges Malaysia to Reject Bans, Criticizes WHO’s Stance on Tobacco Alternatives, https://www.businesstimesjournal.com/article/807242863-coalition-urges-malaysia-to-reject-bans-criticizes-who-s-stance-on-tobacco-alternatives

[11] PMI’s Statement of Purpose, https://www.pmi.com/statement-of-purpose

[12] Vaping a way to cut smoking death toll? https://www.bangkokpost.com/podcast/deeper-dive/2981286/vaping-a-way-to-cut-smoking-death-toll-

[13] Patanavanich R., Glantz S. Successful countering of tobacco industry efforts to overturn Thailand’s ENDS ban. Tobacco Control. BMJ Vol 30 Issue e1. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056058