Author: Staff Writer

Judge Rules Reynolds can Continue to sell Vuse

A Virginia federal judge denied a permanent injunction request from Philip Morris International (PMI) to bar R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. from selling vaping devices that a jury found violated PMI patents. In the order, the judge stated that banning the devices would harm public health.
However, RJRV was ordered to pay a modest patent royalty to its rival PMI. Judge Leonie Brinkeina of the Eastern District of Virginia stated that RJRV is required to pay a royalty of 1.8 percent of net sales for infringing on a patent used in Vuse Alto cartridges, and a 2.2 percent royalty for infringing on a patent used in Vuse Solo G2 cartridges, reports the Winston-Salem Journal.
The royalties will be enforced for the remaining life of the patents. The royalties will be paid quarterly, retroactive to June 16. PMI said that if a permanent injunction was not approved, it requested a 33.5 percent royalty on the Alto cartridges and a 3.75 percent royalty on the Solo G2 cartridges.
The royalties are on top of jury awards in 2022 that totaled $10.91 million for the Alto infringement and $3.16 million for the Solo G2 infringement.
PMI said in a statement that “while we continue to review the court’s decision, we reiterate our gratitude to the jury for its finding that BAT’s affiliate RJR infringed two of our patents with its Vuse products, its confirmation of BAT’s obligation to pay us damages, and its vindication of our industry-leading investments in smoke-free technologies, such as e-vapor.”
RJRV said in a statement that “while we welcome the decision to reject an injunction, we are disappointed with the underlying verdict regarding patent validity and infringement.”
“R.J. Reynolds Vapor is currently evaluating next steps, including the possibility of an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, seeking reversal of the jury’s verdict regarding patent validity and infringement.”
Brinkeina determined that PMI “has not established that it has suffered irreparable injury” from the patent infringements.
The judge wrote that “(PMI) did not have a significant market (in the U.S.) before Reynolds infringed on its patents, has not demonstrated that it has brand recognition in the U.S. for its products, and has not provided compelling evidence that shows the loss of goodwill in the domestic market.”
Brinkeina also determined that the public’s interest in having potentially harm reduction Alto and Solo G2 cartridges available at retail outweighs ordering a permanent injunction “given the undisputed popularity of Reynolds’ Vuse products.”
In the latest Nielsen report on convenience store sales of tobacco products, top-selling Vuse holds a 42.2 percent market share, compared with Juul at 26.1 percent.
April 10, 2023
Texas County to Discuss Selling Vapes to Inmates

Credit: Rawf8
A county sheriff in Ector County, Texas told county commissioners that he believed the jail can make “a million dollars” from selling e-cigarettes to inmates.
Sheriff Mike Griffis is scheduled to speak to the commissioners on Tuesday. The agenda item of “consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve the sale of e-cigarettes to inmates at no cost to the county or taxpayers; all proceeds collected will be used at the Ector County Detention Center,” according to Yahoo.
“We are not only looking at this as a behavioral tool, but a financial tool to help offset some of the taxpayer-funded items that we have to provide inmates in the jail,” Griffis said. “We hope to implement it within the next few weeks.”
Griffis explained to the Odessa American the cost of the e-cigarette will be $3.85 each and come in a 50-count package.
The jail plans to have an initial order of 1,000. The cost to the inmates will be $14 (a 364 percent increase) which includes $1.07 in sales tax. Griffis said there will be stipulations for inmates to purchase an e-cigarette with their commissary funds.
Griffis said inmates can only purchase and have one e-cigarette at a time. Griffis said before the inmate can purchase another e-cigarette they have to return their initial e-cigarette purchase. Griffis also explained that if the e-cigarette has been tampered with the inmate won’t be able to purchase any more e-cigarettes.
“If it’s abused, that inmate will not be eligible to get another one,” Griffis said.
April 9, 2023
Price set at $7 per Share for Ispire Technology IPO
Credit: IQoncept
Ispire Technology Inc. announced that it has priced its initial public offering of 2,700,000 shares of its common stock offered at a price to the public of $7.00 per share.
In addition, the company also granted the Underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 405,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, according to a press release.
The shares began trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market on April 4, under the ticker symbol “ISPR.”
The initial public offering is expected to close on April 6, 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Proceeds from the offering will be used for:
Approximately 35 percent to develop manufacturing operations in Vietnam and the United States;
Approximately 25 percent for research and development activities, which include efforts to develop new products and new vaping technology;
Approximately 20 percent for the marketing and promotion of the Company’s branded products; and
The balance of approximately 20 percent for general administration and working capital.
US Tiger Securities, Inc. is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. TFI Securities and Futures Limited and Prime Number Capital, LLC are acting as underwriters for the offering.
In addition, 1,750,000 shares of common stock may be offered by two selling stockholders pursuant to the prospectus.
These shares may be sold from time to time by the selling stockholders, who have not engaged any underwriter in connection any sales they may make. The company will not receive any proceeds from sales by the selling stockholders.
Last year, Shenzhen-based Aspire Global, parent to Ispire, applied to U.S. regulators to withdraw its New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listing application.
April 5, 2023
Vuse Market Share Grows to 42%, Juul Drops to 26%

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. has continued to expand Vuse‘s market-share gap with Juul, according to the latest Nielsen convenience store report released Tuesday.
Vuse’s market share rose from 41.5% in the previous report to 42.2%, compared with Juul declining from 26.1% to 26.1%.
The latest Nielsen analysis covers the four-week period ending March 25, according to media reports.
According to Barclays, Nielsen largely covers the big chains. For the smaller chains, the group extrapolates trends, which is why trend changes don’t appear immediately in Nielsen.
Consumer demand for tobacco products has ebbed and flowed over the past 12 months, mostly from the impact of inflation and recent upticks in traditional cigarette prices.
No. 3 NJoy was unchanged at 2.7%, while Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs was unchanged at 1.4%.
On March 6, Altria Group Inc. delivered another shakeup to the tobacco industry by confirming it would pay $2.75 billion in cash to take full ownership of NJoy.
Altria cleared the way for the NJoy purchase by exiting its minority stake in No. 2 e-cigarette Juul while acquiring global licensing rights.
Juul’s four-week dollar sales in the latest report have dropped from a 50.2% increase in the Aug. 10, 2019, report to a 23.9% decline in the latest report.
By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was up 31.1% in the latest report, while NJoy was down 10.9%, blu eCigs down 37.4% and Japan Tobacco’s Logic up 5.2%.
As recently as May 2019, Juul held a 74.6% U.S. e-cig market share.
April 5, 2023
Cannabis Vape Hardware Firm Greentank Gets $16.5 Million

Credit: VetKit
Vape hardware manufacturer Greentank Technologies closed a Series B financing round worth $16.5 million with an unspecified “strategic investor group” that includes Canadian cannabis producer Organigram Holdings.
The funding will be used to launch new vape technology, which Greentank CEO Dustin Koffler said in a statement “moves away from the traditional ceramic and wicked coil systems commonly used in most vaporizer products today.”
The technology “is expected to launch later this year and serve multiple markets beyond cannabis,” Toronto-based Greentank said in a Friday news release, according to MJ Biz Daily.
The $16.5 million funding round includes a $14.5 million equity investment from the investment group, plus $2 million in debt financing from existing shareholders.
The terms of the debt financing were not disclosed.
In a statement, Greentank said its new vape technology “will expand its reach beyond cannabis to serve the broader vape category including nicotine, e-liquids, pharmaceuticals and more.”
April 4, 2023
Palau Makes Sale, Use of Vaping Products Illegal

The small island nation of Palau has outlawed e-cigarettes and other vaping products after President Surangel Whipps signed a law for “a total ban on the import, advertising, sale, and use of e-cigarettes” on March 29.
The law – RPPL 11-27 – has expanded the country’s Tobacco Control Act to include e-cigarettes and will come into effect 60 days after being enacted, according to the NZ Herald.
Beginning May 29, businesses and individuals can be prosecuted if found with e-cigarette products.
Individuals who are caught violating the law could face a US$1000 (NZ$1588) fine and businesses or persons importing, distributing, and/or selling the product could face a US$20,000 (NZ$31,753) fine.
The initial bill was introduced in the Palau National Congress in July last year.
April 4, 2023
April 30 Deadline for Malaysian Vape Manufacturers

Credit: Olly
Following the removal of nicotine e-liquid or gel from the Poisons Act 1952 to allow for e-cigarettes and vaping products to be taxed in Malaysia, local manufacturers producing e-liquid or gel products containing nicotine must register their manufacturing activities with the Customs Department by April 30, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
“Early registration within this prescribed period may prevent manufacturers from being charged a compound for the offense of late registration. This early registration will ensure comprehensive industry compliance and smooth tax collection by May 2023,” the MOF said in a statement on April 2, according to The Edge Markets.
This follows the imposition of an excise tax of 40 sen ($0.004) cents per milliliter on nicotine e-liquids or gels.
rime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced the government’s plan to impose an excise tax on liquid or gel products containing nicotine when he re-tabled Budget 2023 in February.
The previous government under Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration also proposed to extend tax collection from gel or liquid products containing nicotine for vapes and e-cigarettes in the tabling of Budget 2022 by imposing a tax of RM1.20 per ml. However, the plan was postponed, because nicotine vape liquid was still classified as a Class C poison under the Poisons Act.
The new excise duty, the MOF said, would enable the government to tax the vape industry which is estimated to be worth over RM2 billion ($454 million), and at the same time help discourage the use of vapes.
It will also help improve rules and control of excise duty goods by the customs to avoid leakage of national income, according to media reports.
April 3, 2023
Singapore Officials Seize More Than 85,000 Vaping Products

Credit: Sharaf Maksumov
Authorities in Singapore seized more than 85,000 vaping products in a warehouse raid conducted by Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA).
This is the largest seizure of e-cigarettes and other vaping products by HSA, surpassing a haul in 2021 where more than S$2.2 million ($3 million) worth of products were confiscated, said HSA and the Singapore police in a joint press release today. The latest seizure has an estimated value of more than $5 million.
The raid was the result of HSA following up on leads from investigating a group of people suspected of selling illegal vaping products, according to Channel News Asia.
On Mar 28, six individuals were detained by the police at a multi-story car park at Block 592 Montreal Link.
“The driver of a van was allegedly found to be distributing parcels containing e-vaporizers to five persons purportedly assisting in the delivery to buyers,” said the authorities.
Under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act, it is an offense to import, sell or distribute vape products.
Those found guilty for the first time can be fined up to S$10,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.
Subsequent offenses double the penalties to a fine of up to S$20,000, a jail term of up to a year, or both.
Vaping is illegal in Singapore. The purchase, use and possession of all vaping products are also prohibited.
April 3, 2023
Malaysia Removes Nicotine E-Liquids From Poisons List

Credit: Gerey
Malaysia’s government has removed e-liquid containing nicotine used in e-cigarettes and other vaping products from the country’s Poisons List of controlled substances. The move enables taxation on e-liquids.
Media reports claim the removal effectively legalizes e-cigarettes with nicotine without any regulations in place, as the current Control of Tobacco Products Regulations 2004 under the Food Act 1983 only cover conventional cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022 – which seeks to regulate both tobacco and vape products, besides a ban on these products for anyone born from 2007 – has yet to be tabled in the current 15th Parliament, reports Code Blue.
Health Minister Zaliha Mustafa gazetted an order Friday to exempt nicotine “preparation of a kind used for smoking through electronic cigarette and electric vaporizing device, in the form of liquid or gel” from the Poisons List under the Poisons Act 1952 – overriding the Poisons Board that unanimously rejected the proposal last Wednesday.
The Excise Duties (Amendment) Order 2023 – which subjects e-liquid or gel containing nicotine to excise duty of 40 sen ($0.004) per milliliter – gazetted by Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the prime minister, was dated last March 29, the same day as the Poisons Board meeting.
The tax on e-liquids with nicotine went into effect on April 1.
CodeBlue reported that the Poisons Board, an independent body formed under the Poisons Act, wholly objected to the government’s proposal to exclude nicotine-containing e-liquid from the Poisons List on the basis that the harm of allowing e-cigarettes to be sold to anyone, including children, outweighed the benefit of tax revenue from such products containing nicotine, a highly addictive substance.
April 2, 2023
Former CTP Director Zeller Joins Qnovia Advisory Board

Mitch Zeller, former director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products
Mitch Zeller, the much-maligned former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco center has joined the advisory board of a company developing a first-of-its-kind smoking cessation inhalation product.
Zeller said Qnovia’s nicotine inhalation product, RespiRX, has the potential to be a “game changer” in lowering the use of combustible cigarettes.
The former director of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) from March 2013 until his retirement in April 2022, Zeller is now providing policy and regulatory strategy consulting to Qnovia, Inc.
The company is currently preparing an application to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) for a cessation therapy which, if approved, will be the first inhaled prescription therapy to help tobacco smokers quit.
Zeller’s addition to the company’s advisory board comes as the FDA aims to finalize proposed bans on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars by August. The FDA also plans to propose a rule limiting nicotine levels in cigarettes and some other tobacco products.
Zeller said access to Qnovia’s product can be one essential tool along with an administration-wide effort to provide support to those with nicotine addictions once those product standards take effect.
“Some people will be able to quit cold turkey, but a whole bunch won’t, and they will be seeking nicotine elsewhere,” Zeller said in an interview, told Bloomberg Law.
“The last thing that we want smokers to do if any of those policies go into effect is to simply switch to another tobacco product,” he added.
Qnovia’s goal is for RespiRx to be the first inhaled prescription smoking cessation therapy product, according to Qnovia CEO Brian Quigley. Instead of using heat to create vapor, the RespiRx device uses an orientation-agnostic vibrating mesh nebulizer. The aerosolizing engine is nothing like a traditional e-cigarette that heats a coil to atomize nicotine based in PG and/or VG.
RespiRx is activated when a user inhales on the device. To aerosolize the nicotine, it sends an electrical current that causes the perforated piezo mesh to vibrate more than 100,000 times a second. “It’s that vibrating action of the mesh that then forces the liquid to the holes, creating an aerosol that appears vapor-like, allowing it to be inhaled,” says Quigley. That, he says, is fundamentally different from a traditional e-cigarette product, where the heating process can create undesired thermal byproducts.
RespiRx uses proprietary software to deliver a precise dose of nicotine. Every time it’s activated, the device fires for three seconds and delivers a targeted dose of the drug. The base is reusable and serves as the housing for the battery and software. The RespiRx nebulizer sits within the pod that houses the nicotine drug product.
“The nebulizing unit (cartridge) gets replaced by the patient every one to two days. That interface means that the patient doesn’t have to clean the nebulizer,” explains Quigley. “The biggest challenge with other vibrating mesh products is that they require cleaning if used over an extended period. We’re mitigating that through the design of the interface. There is no cleaning required. We do believe that this will result in RespiRx having a very long use life.”
Late last year, Qnovia raised $17 million to continue the development of its RespiRx nicotine replacement product.
In June of 2020, the company appointed Quigley, a 16-year veteran of Altria Group, as its Chief Operating Officer. At Altria, Quigley served as CEO of its smokeless tobacco business from 2012 to 2018, a $2.3 billion business with over 800 employees,
March 31, 2023