ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,732, issued on June 17, was assigned to Philip Morris Products S.A. (Neuchatel, Switzerland).
"Simulated respiratory tract" was invented by Pierre Herve (Daillens, Switzerland), Shoaib Majeed (Neuchatel, Switzerland) and Sandro Steiner (Schonbuhl, Switzerland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "There is described herein a system for determining the interaction between a test atmosphere and a simulated respiratory tract, said system comprising: (a) a first pump comprising: (i) a chamber configured for containing a first volume of gas comprising a test atmosphere; (ii) a first port adapted for receiving and outputting gas and comprising a v...