The China Patent Office has approved Next Generation Labs’ (NGL) patent application covering the process for the preparation of R-S [synthetic] nicotine, issue number 201580069647.2.
The approval will give NGL the ability to better enforce its intellectual property rights. NGL is the world’s largest manufacturer of S-isomer, R-S isomer and R-isomer synthetic nicotine sold under the registered brand name TFN.
According to NGL, the U.S. and Korean markets have been inundated with dozens of fake synthetic nicotine products and brands, and many manufacturers have misleadingly labeled bulk pure nicotine, bulk vape liquid mixtures and vaping and oral nicotine products as made with TFN. In many instances, the nicotine contained in these products is not synthetic, tobacco-free or non-tobacco, but is in fact derived from tobacco sources.
For almost a decade, NGL has spent considerable effort establishing a strong global intellectual property portfolio that has become distinctive of the company’s goodwill and of the high-quality adult consumers expect of TFN-branded nicotine.
NGL now intends to fully enforce its rights against many of these so-called synthetic nicotine brands.
NGL has been taking direct action in the United States and through its sole South Korean distribution partner NextEra to limit the misleading claims of unscrupulous sellers of pseudo-synthetic nicotine, and against manufacturers and brand owners who misrepresent that their product contains TFN branded synthetic non-tobacco-nicotine.
“With the assistance of the Chinese authorities, NGL now intends to fully enforce its rights against many of these so-called synthetic nicotine brands at their point of manufacture, and will take the lead with national customs agencies to limit the flow of fake synthetic nicotine products at trade exit and entry points in China, the U.S., EU, UK, South Korea, India, Canada, and Australia,” the company wrote in a press release.
As the Biden administration engages the COVID-19 pandemic, a public tug-of-war has emerged over who should be nominated to run the Food and Drug Administration, a pivotal participant in the effort, write Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier for Issues & Insights. An analysis of the two perceived front-runners illustrates that neither would likely introduce the kinds of reform needed at the agency.
Jeff Stier / senior fellow at the Consumer Choice Center
One candidate is acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, a long-serving top FDA official with widespread institutional respect, both inside and outside the agency.
To her (far) left is Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, who served briefly as deputy commissioner of the FDA in the Obama administration, and who formerly was the secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, as well as the health commissioner in Baltimore. Earlier in his career, Sharfstein was the health policy adviser to influential, liberal Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. He is currently the vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Woodcock’s strength is her extensive background in pharmaceutical regulation. However, some perceive her to be overly sympathetic to industry. Woodcock has been at the FDA for 35 years, and would be a sober, steady influence at a time that cries for stability at the agency.
But her institutionalism is also a weakness; all is not well at the FDA. As former Commissioner Frank E. Young quipped, “dogs bark, cows moo, and regulators regulate.” Consistent with that propensity, the FDA often exceeds its congressional mandate. Regulators have concocted additional criteria for marketing approval of a new drug beyond the statutory requirements for demonstrating safety and efficacy— requirements that sometimes inflict significant but obscure damage on both patients and pharmaceutical companies.
For example, regulators have arbitrarily demanded that a new drug be superior to existing therapies, although the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires only a demonstration of safety and efficacy. And in a classic case of regulatory mission creep, Phase 4 (post-marketing) studies are now routine, whereas the FDA used to reserve them for rare situations, such as when there were subpopulations of patients for whom data were insufficient at the time of approval.
The effects of FDA regulators’ self-aggrandizing, excessively risk-averse actions range from the creation of disincentives to research and development (which inflates costs) to significant threats to public health, such as the years-long delay in approval of a much-needed meningitis B vaccine.
Another egregious example of the impact of excessive risk-aversion is the saga of a drug called pirfenidone, used to treat a pulmonary disorder called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which used to kill tens of thousands of Americans annually. The FDA unnecessarily delayed approval of the drug for years, although it had already been judged to be safe and effective and marketed in Europe, Japan, Canada, and China. (This deadly delay occurred on the watches of both Woodcock and Sharfstein.) As a result, more than 150,000 patients died of IPF in the United States, many of whom could have benefited from the drug.
The agency’s handling of e-cigarettes over the last two administrations is a sorry illustration of how regulatory dilly-dallying undermines public health. The agency’s mealy-mouthed endorsement of vaping as only a “potential” tool for tobacco harm reduction for adult smokers failed to sufficiently encourage smokers to make the switch away from consuming nicotine in its deadliest form, the cigarette. As a result, not enough smokers have been using them, while too many kids have.
Contrast this with Public Health England’s clear endorsement of using e-cigarettes to quit smoking, which has led to a sharp reduction in smoking without an epidemic of youth vaping. Woodcock would be unlikely to break the FDA’s mold in this space, while Sharfstein’s blind opposition to private sector-driven innovative solutions would likely shift e-cigarettes from a highly regulated marketplace to an illicit market like the one that caused the outbreak of pulmonary illnesses related to THC-vaping in 2019.
The agency has become extremely top-heavy, with ever more boxes appearing at the top of the organizational chart, even though the vast majority of day-to-day oversight and regulatory actions are taken at the level of FDA’s various “centers” – Woodcock’s longtime perch, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, the relatively new Center for Tobacco Products, and so on. The FDA needs to be put on an organizational diet.
If Woodcock is the institutional pick, Sharfstein would be the Ralph Nader pick. In fact, Sharfstein’s affiliation with failed nanny-state presidential candidates is more current than that. His academic affiliation with the Bloomberg School of Public Health is no coincidence. An outspoken advocate for expanding the scope of the FDA, which already regulates 20 cents of every consumer dollar, Sharfstein would have been the obvious pick for FDA commissioner, or even secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, if former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s multi-million-dollar presidential campaign had prevailed. Far from putting the agency on a diet, Sharfstein would instigate a regulatory feeding frenzy.
What’s needed are structural, policy, management, and cultural changes that create incentives for the FDA to regulate in a way that is evidence-based and imposes the minimum burden possible. A number of possible approaches and remedies to accomplish that have been described, but neither Woodcock nor Sharfstein is likely to embrace any of them.
We need significant legislative changes, or just conscientious congressional oversight, to disrupt the agency’s built-in bias for overregulation, but political realities make that unlikely anytime soon.
Henry Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. A 15-year veteran of the FDA, he was the founding director of the agency’s Office of Biotechnology. Jeff Stier is a senior fellow at the Consumer Choice Center. Please follow them on Twitter at @henryimiller and @JeffAStier.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration announced today the Chinese government’s intent to overhaul rules governing the vapor and electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) market. The news started a swift downfall of shares of RLX Technology, parent to RELX, China’s largest e-cigarette brand, on the New York Stock Exchange. At 2:45pm today, RLX was down nearly 45 percent to $10.69 per share after recent high of $19.46 per share on March 19.
Credit: RLX Technology
Draft regulations posted online by MIIT suggest it will seek to regulate these products similarly to ordinary cigarettes. The ministry is seeking public comments on the draft regulations until April 22. The implications of the draft regulations could be wide-ranging as, with an estimated 300 million smokers, China is considered the world’s largest market for tobacco product.
“In order to implement the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, further strengthen the supervision of new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, we have drafted the Decision on Amending the Regulations on the Implementation of the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China,” the rule states. “The amendment is mainly to implement the requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on promoting the rule of law in the supervision of e-cigarettes , to clarify the legal basis for the supervision of new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes , and to do a good job in connecting with laws and regulations such as the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, so as to play an important role in strengthening the rule of law , stabilizing expectations and promoting the long-term.”
RLX Technology raised $1.4 billion during its initial public offering (IPO) in January this year. It sold 116.5 million shares with a target price of between US$8 and US$10 a share. Its successful market debut turned its 39-year-old founder, Wang Ying, into a billionaire overnight with an estimated net worth of $24.8 billion.
In its prospectus, RLX stated that vaping products only have a 1.2 percent penetration rate in China, compared with 32.4 percent in the U.S. According to the China-based Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee, China’s 2020 e-cigarette sales were an estimated 14.5 billion RMB yuan ($2.2 billion), an increase of 30 percent from 2019 (11.2 billion RMB yuan). According to Grandview Research, the US e-cigarette market in 2019 and was valued at $5.34 billion and is expected to reach $6.50 billion in 2020.
RELX recently announced its partnership with 110 authorized distributors to supply its products to over 5,000 RELX-branded partner stores, and over 100,000 other retail outlets nationwide, covering over 250 cities in China, according to its prospectus. Revenue for the company nearly doubled in the nine months ended September 30, 2020 to $324 million, with a net income of $16 million, the latest figures available at the time of this writing.
But tobacco companies are increasingly facing scrutiny from regulators in China. Currently, the only regulatory actions taken by Chinese authorities are in 2018, the country made it a crime to sell a vapor product to anyone under 18 years of age and then, in November 2019, an online sales ban was implemented in order to further prevent youth initiation. In 2020, the country passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors. That law is aimed at preventing parents or other guardians from “indulging or instigating minors” to smoke or vape.
CNTC is a source of major funding for the Chinese government. Its contribution accounted for an estimated 5.45 percent of the country’s tax revenue in 2018. That amounts to 10.8 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion), according to media reports. If CNTC were to enter the vapor market, the monopoly’s existing 5 million domestic retail outlets could present a major challenge for private vape shop owners.
Wang told Reuters in a recent news article that she’s “not worried” about the government’s impact on the sector. The products will continue to remain available, she said, “as long as there’s proof that this is a good solution for smokers.”
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued three more warning letters to vapor industry companies on March 19. The latest announcement total brings the count to 69 letters this year for companies selling vapor products without gaining regulatory approval through the agency’s premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process, according to the agency’s website.
The latest letters were issued to Arizona-based Vapor Outlet, Vapor Tech Hawaii and the Vaporium in Illinois. In its letter to Vaporium, the FDA stated that the company continues to “manufacture, sell, and/or distribute to customers in the United States The Vaporium 6mg Red White and Blue 70/30 30 ML e-liquid product” without a marketing authorization order.
“Your firm is a registered manufacturer with 19,860 products listed with FDA. It is your responsibility to ensure that your tobacco products comply with each applicable provision of the FD&C Act and FDA’s implementing regulations,” the letter states. “Failure to adequately address this matter may lead to regulatory action, including, but not limited to, civil money penalties, seizure, and/or injunction.”
Companies that receive warning letters from the FDA have to submit a written response to the letter within 15 working days from the date of receipt describing the company’s corrective actions, including the dates on which it discontinued the violative sale, and/or distribution of the products. They also require the company’s plan for maintaining compliance with the FD&C Act in the future.
Many of the FDA’s letters so far have gone to local vape shops that manufacturer their own e-liquid in the store. For example, Vapor Tech Hawaii’s letter states that the FDA has determined that it “manufacture, sell, and/or distribute to customers its Vapor Tech Hawaii Waikikiwi 100ML 3mg e-liquid product” without a marketing authorization order. On March 16, the company issued three letters to stores owned by the Louisiana-based Little Town Vaping for selling house brand e-liquids.
The Gaur-21 provides all the expected features in a high-end device without a burdensome menu design.
By Mike Huml
The Gaur-21 from Vandy Vape is a beast. There are no mincing words. It is a high-power series mod with the entire gamut of features expected from top-end devices. With design input from Matt from SMM, the Gaur-21 perfectly streamlines high-end vaping into a robust and straightforward experience at only a modest price point.
The Gaur-21 features three-button operation with a built-in menu system that is concise and intuitive, allowing each user to adjust settings quickly and easily with few ambiguous prompts. A standard 510 connection ensures compatibility with most any type of atomizer, including sub-ohm tanks and rebuildables. The mod itself is quite lightweight, but when batteries are installed, it can become weighty to the point that it feels solid but not cumbersome. While 18650 batteries can be used with the included adapters, the Gaur-21 truly shines when used with high-quality 21700 batteries. The battery door pulls off easily and is held in place with magnets, but the batteries can be charged within the mod via an included USB type-C cable.
Any vaping style is permitted with the Gaur-21, from low-wattage mouth-to-lung vaping to massive cloud-chucking lung hits. With a range of 5 watts to 200 watts, no atomizer is out of the question. Atomizers with resistances as low as 0.05 ohms can be used, and the mod supports an output current of up to 50 amps, so there is little need to worry about the mod limiting the output when low resistances are combined with high wattages. While pure power is certainly an attractive feature, temperature control is also perfectly viable as well, with a standard temperature range of 200 degrees Fahrenheit to 600 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius to 315 degrees Celsius).
The build quality is also something of note. The Gaur-21 has a rubberized finish on most of the exterior with portions of the battery door available in multiple colors and a more textured, rounded back for comfort. When assembled, there is absolutely no rattling, and there are no loose-feeling elements. Dust and excess e-liquid are easily cleaned from the rubberized surface, and fingerprints are a nonissue. In terms of pure aesthetic quality, there are no complaints.
The 510 connection is slightly off-center with airflow channels on the off chance that the connected atomizer receives airflow through its 510 connection. The asymmetry of this design favors finger firing rather than thumb firing, but both methods are equally comfortable. The screen lies on the atomizer side of the mod and is illuminated in full color, which not only looks nice but makes it much easier to distinguish between various screen and menu icons.
Three clicks of the fire button will allow for the selection of the firing mode—wattage, voltage, temperature control or bypass. Holding the fire button and the plus button will lock the device, and a separate option in the menu will determine whether this locking function will lock the device entirely or only the adjustment buttons. Holding the fire button and the minus button will flip the screen 180 degrees, a feature that will rarely see use. By pressing the plus and minus buttons twice in quick succession, one can activate a prompt to re-read the atomizer resistance. Holding the plus and minus buttons will enter the full menu screen for further customization.
Lastly, pressing all three buttons at the same time will activate or deactivate stealth mode, blacking out the screen but still allowing the device to function. Vandy Vape has not omitted any functionality, and these menu shortcuts allow quick and easy access to the most-used tools.
During and for a short time after use, the screen displays all the standard useful information one could want to know briefly. Current output setting, battery life on a per-battery basis, atomizer resistance, output voltage, puff count and vape time. When the menu shortcut is activated, a vertical list of icons appears, each corresponding to a set of features or options. These include output settings, standby sleep time, screen brightness, puff count reset, UI color, firmware version, a QR code to download the optional mobile app, temperature control options to adjust the cooling value and coefficient and a factory reset. These are mostly self-explanatory.
The temperature control settings allow TC aficionados the ability to really fine-tune the functionality to try and dial-in the perfect vape. The mobile app is handy for anyone who likes to tinker with their settings on a regular basis but finds the built-in system a bit too cumbersome. The first icon, settings, will be the most useful to most vapers.
Within the settings menu, the user can change which modes can be selected from the main screen. For example, if a particular vaper is partial to wattage vaping only, they can turn off temperature control, bypass and variable voltage mode entirely. These options will no longer be available from the main menu, which is great overall for simplifying.
Alternatively, if someone likes to switch between wattage mode and bypass mode, they can turn off temperature control mode and all its associated features to more easily switch between the modes that are most used. This is also the menu option that allows the user to dictate whether the lock function disables the fire button. Many mods have a lock function that prevents the device from firing, but this is in addition to the five-click on/off feature, which is also present in the Gaur-21. So instead of having two different ways to functionally turn the device “off,” the user can choose to lock the device at a certain wattage, voltage or temperature setting while still retaining the ability to fire the device.
The settings menu also allows the user to determine if new atomizers are automatically detected. Depending on the mode used, this can be useful for “locking” the atomizer resistance in place. Particularly in temperature control modes, this can ensure a more consistent vaping experience. Finally, the user can choose to have the mod disconnect from the mobile app automatically when the device is turned off.
In addition to adjustment functionality, the mobile app can also push firmware upgrades to the device, which is generally far easier than plugging it into a PC with a USB cable and upgrading through proprietary software or awkward button combinations. Most notably, the Gaur-21 app features a lost-and-found feature. If the mod is ever lost but is connected to the app, the user can use their phone to ping the mod, causing it to beep repeatedly until turned off. For anyone who has ever panicked over the prospect of losing their vape, this feature is a godsend.
The Gaur-21 provides all the features one would expect from a high-end device and then some, and it does so without overly burdensome menu features. In fact, one of the main features is to disable features that aren’t used in order to become even more straightforward! But a main feature that shouldn’t be overlooked is inherent to the nature of the mod, and that’s compatibility with 21700 batteries. 21700 batteries are truly a treat. With only a marginal size and weight increase over 18650 batteries, 21700 batteries have significantly more battery life and a consistently higher amp limit. That means safer batteries that last longer. High-quality 21700 batteries can easily achieve over 4,000 mAh and still retain a continuous discharge rate of over 30 amps.
That’s impressive even for a 26650 battery, which have generally fallen out of favor due to the extremely large size. Now, that performance can be had even in devices that aren’t necessarily larger than those that use 18650 batteries. For mouth-to-lung vapers, that means that 10 watts to 30 watts can be maintained for days without needing to charge the batteries, and for lung-hitters, higher wattages can be attained for longer periods of time with much less stress on the batteries.
Given that most multi-battery mods are on the larger side and focus on power and features over size and convenience, the benefits of 21700 batteries over 18650 batteries cannot be overstated. Advanced mods have always pushed 18650 batteries to the limit, and 21700 batteries offer some much-needed headroom with almost no downside.
The Gaur-21 doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but it makes a strong case as a flagship mod targeted at intermediate to advanced vapers. Operation is simple yet exhaustive, catering to every vaping style. Build quality is fantastic with that sought after “tacticool” look, unapologetically inspired by the Aegis Legend, and the option to use 21700 batteries is a game-changer.
It may seem like a small thing, but for anyone who wants the benefits of a multiple-battery series box mod and isn’t phased by the larger size, 21700 batteries offer increased battery life, power and safety with virtually no negatives. The Gaur-21 is undoubtedly a mod worthy of the advanced, high-power mod throne in any product lineup, successfully capable of offering most any function to any vaper.
Eight Missouri medical marijuana dispensaries, including three in the Kansas City area, started selling THC vape pens and cartridges for the first time last week. Store owners say customers have clamored for them for some time, despite varying opinions on their safety.
Credit: Clear Cannabis
The potential dangers of vaping nicotine and black market THC have been studied. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hasn’t updated reports on a lung injury associated with black market THC vaping products since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but in February 2020 it reported 2,800 hospitalized cases of EVALI and 68 deaths since August of 2019. The CDC has stated that vitamin E acetate in illegal THC vape pens was to blame for the lung disease.
“Vaping products are “by far our No. 1 request,” Greenlight CEO John Mueller said, according to an article in Newsbreak.
Last week, medical marijuana vape pens were delivered to Greenlight’s dispensaries in Kansas City, Independence and Harrisonville. It’s the first time the products have been available in the state because it took time for cultivators to extract trim material down to a distillate form that could be vaporized.
“It’s an exciting day for the industry,” Mueller said, opening the first box.
Joel Klein, a top executive at health insurer Oscar Health, has joined the board of directors of Juul Labs, one of the largest e-cigarette companies in the world.
Joel Klein, Credit: NYT
Klein is the chief policy and strategy officer at Oscar, which went public earlier this month in an IPO that valued the company at $8.6 billion, according to Business Insider. He previously spent eight years as the chancellor of New York City public schools under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Politico first reported Klein’s appointment.
“I believe the company must continue to play a critical role in reducing the devastating harm caused by smoking,” Klein said in a statement emailed to Insider. “To accomplish that paramount goal, Juul Labs must, first and foremost, continue preventing underage use of its products.
Cambodia’s National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) has instructed all relevant ministries and institutions to take immediate action to stop the use and commercialization of heated tobacco products (HTPs), reports The Phnom Penh Post.
“All forms of trafficking, trading and importation of HTPs must be stopped and information on import restrictions must be disseminated to all vendors and the public,” the NACD stated in a directive.
Citing the World Health Organization, the NACD said the use of cigars, electronic nicotine delivery devices (ENDS) and HTPs can lead to serious lung disease and even death. The announcement further said that using these products is also a motivating factor for people to use other illegal drugs.
Cambodia has restricted ENDS since February 2014, but its guidelines did not cover newer HTPs.
Deputy National Police chief Mak Chito said that in the past the authorities had confiscated many of these products. He said that although some other countries consider the use of these products legal, Cambodia does not allow it.
“In Cambodia, there are also bad people who are cheating by using methamphetamines or marijuana [with these devices],” he said.
Kaival Brands Innovations Group has appointed Paul Reuter, Carolyn Hanigan and Roger Brooks to its board of directors.
In addition to gaining the experience and judgment that the new members will bring to the board, their appointments are intended to ensure the company complies with certain corporate governance rules ahead of its planned Nasdaq uplisting.
“We are very pleased that Paul, Carolyn and Roger have agreed to join us as new members of the board,” said Niraj Patel, CEO of Kaival Brands, in a statement. “Coming off a remarkable year that demonstrated the strength of our team and products, these three individuals are joining the company at an exciting time. We look forward to benefiting from their diverse backgrounds and respective expertise.”
Reuter brings nearly five decades of industry experience in small box retail as a journalist, editorial director, entrepreneur and speaker. He has launched two businesses, including MidWest Retail Group, where he served as chairman and founding partner from April 2013 through June 2019. He is also the founder of Kreative Collaborations, an industry consultancy.
Prior to her retirement, Hanigan was the president of Reynolds American Innovation Co., an operating company of Reynolds American Inc. (RAI). Hanigan led the global vapor collaboration with British American Tobacco (BAT) up until RAI was acquired by BAT in 2017.
Coming off a remarkable year that demonstrated the strength of our team and products, these three individuals are joining the company at an exciting time.
She was the architect of RAI’s U.S. reduced-risk products strategic direction to further the vision of transforming tobacco. Under her leadership, RAI prepared both the U.S. commercial execution and regulatory applications for the Glo tobacco-heating products, the Velo nicotine pouches, and the Alto, Ciro, Vibe and Solo nicotine vaporizers.
Brooks is currently the chairman, treasurer and co-founder of Abierto Networks. Prior to his roles at Abierto Networks, from 1998 to 2008, Brooks was the lead independent director and member of the compensation and audit committees for Moldflow Corp. From 2017 to 2019, Brooks served as an independent director of Lytron Incorporated.
In the Philippines, three committees of the House of Representatives have endorsed to the plenary the approval of a measure that will regulate all vapor products, whether they contain nicotine or not. The rule will also apply to heated tobacco products (HTPs).
House Committees on Trade and Industry, on Health and on Appropriations has submitted Committee Report 873 for the proposed Non-Combustible Nicotine Delivery Systems Regulation Act (House Bill 9007), according to politics.com.ph. The rule applies to electronic nicotine- and non-nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS).
The measure provides that the allowable minimum wage to purchase, sale and use ENDS/ENNDS or HTPs shall be 18 years old, although there is debate to raise that age to 21 or even 25. The seller would also be required to verify the age of the buyer by requiring any valid government-issued identification card bearing the picture, age or date of birth.
“It shall not be a defense for the person selling or distributing that oneself did not know or was not aware of the real age of the purchaser. Neither shall it be a defense that oneself did not know nor had any reason to believe that the product was for the consumption of a person below 18 years old,” the committee report read.
The use of ENDS/ENNDs or HTPs will be banned in all enclosed public places except in designated vaping areas if passed, and the use of product will be prohibited in schools, hospitals, government offices and facilities intended particularly for minors. The bill prohibits the sale or distribution of ENDS/ENNDS or HTPs within 100 meters from a school, playground or other facility frequented by minors.
It also prohibits manufacturers of ENDS/ENNDS or HTPs from sponsoring any sport, concert, cultural or art event, as well as individual and team athletes or performers where such sponsorship shall require or involve the advertisement or promotion of the products.
Violators of the proposed law will be fined P500,000 for the first offense and P750,000 for the second offense. On the third offense, a fine of P1 million and/or imprisonment of not more than six years. The business permit and licenses of the company will also be revoked or cancelled.
If the offender is a foreign national, they will be deported only after serving their sentence.
Kaival Brands Innovations Group has appointed Paul Reuter, Carolyn Hanigan and Roger Brooks to its board of directors.
