Cooper pleased investors in May when Imperial Brands announced it would sell off $2.6 billion of non-core businesses as the company focuses on what it calls “next generation products.” That latter category includes Imperial’s e-vapor brand Blu, which will be in at least ten markets by the end of the year, and its heated—versus burned—tobacco products that have been tested in Japan and Europe. In June 2018, Imperial announced an investment in a U.K. biotech company called Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies that researches and develops medical marijuana products.