Doctors are fighting an application by global tobacco giant Philip Morris International to sell its "heat not burn" products in Australia, warning there is "no evidence" the product is any safer than smoking cigarettes.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australian Medical Association have written to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, asking the regulator to reject the application until the health impacts have been properly studied.

"Claims that heat not burn products pose a lower risk to health due to their milder exposure to toxicants have recently been refuted," college president Harry Nespolon said in a letter to the regulator, seen by the Herald and The Age.

Philip Morris International wants to sell its heated tobacco products in Australia as an alternative to cigarettes. Credit:Bloomberg

Dr Nespolon said the company's assertion that its new product was safe bore "similarities to earlier, and now illegal marketing campaigns by tobacco companies that promoted light and mild cigarettes and, filtered and low-tar cigarettes, as posing a lower health risk".