Tag: e-cigarettes

  • Bangladesh Mayors Commit to Smoke-Free Future

    Bangladesh Mayors Commit to Smoke-Free Future

    Mayors from Bangladesh’s municipalities met for a two-day summit with national and international tobacco control experts, where they pledged to aim for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s vision of a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040, reports the Dhaka Tribune.

    The goal of the summit was to discuss implementation of tobacco control laws and local government guidelines. The country’s tobacco control law was enacted in 2005 after ratification of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The law was amended in 2013, introducing pictorial health warnings and including smokeless tobacco. It took over three years to put the law into practice, and during that time, the health ministry drafted an amendment banning vaping products, lifting the provision of designated smoking zones to prevent secondhand smoke and controlling point-of-sale advertising. The draft is pending Cabinet approval.

    Tobacco use is not declining as expected, according to anti-tobacco activists. The latest data shows that 35.3 percent of adults ages 18 and older used tobacco in any form in 2017. Experts warn that if the trend continues, the tobacco-free goal will not be met.

    “The key is to have strong local leadership in terms of policy development, policy implementation and mobilizing funds at the local level for the prevention of tobacco use and noncommunicable diseases,” said Tara Singh Bam, regional director of The Union Asia Pacific, who spoke at the summit. “Mechanisms need to be established that ensure mayors are held accountable for safeguarding the development and implementation of public health policies from the undue influence of unhealthy commodity industries.”

    “We, the Ministry of Local Government, issued tobacco guidelines for all the municipalities and cities to assist them,” said Joint Secretary Jasim Uddin. “We have distributed these guidelines.” He noted that the mayors attending the summit are “very committed” to preventing tobacco-related diseases and deaths.

    The guidelines direct the mayors to improve tobacco control law enforcement, build public awareness, allocate funds for tobacco control and limit the availability of tobacco products.

  • BAT Launches New Vuse 800 Disposable in Korea

    BAT Launches New Vuse 800 Disposable in Korea

    BAT Rothmans, the Korean unit of BAT, debuted Vuse 800 in Korea, marking the first launch in Asia, according to The Korea Herald.

    The battery-powered e-liquid cigarette product allows up to 800 puffs without charging. There are four flavor options available.

    In the U.S., Vuse accounts for nearly half the market.

    Vuse’s U.S. market share declined from 42.2 percent to 41.8 percent, compared with Juul declining from 26.1 percent to 26 percent.

    In March of this year, Altria Group announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Njoy Holdings for approximately $2.75 billion in cash.

    Altria said it had multiple sources of funding for the deal, including cash from a $2.7 billion agreement with Philip Morris International last year for IQOS. 

    A day before the Njoy announcement, Altria Group announced it had exchanged its entire investment in Juul Labs for a non-exclusive, irrevocable global license to certain of Juul’s heated tobacco intellectual property.

  • China Releases Guideline for Vaping Product Exports

    China Releases Guideline for Vaping Product Exports

    Credit: Zapp 2 Photo

    China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration released the Guidelines for Promoting the Building of Quality Assurance Systems for Exported Electronic Cigarette Products on July 20, according to 2Firsts, which published a translated version of the release.

    The guidelines consist of 18 articles covering the following:

    1. clarifying that enterprises are the main responsible entities for the building of quality assurance management systems for exported electronic cigarette products;
    2. specifying the main content for the building of quality assurance management systems for exported processes, allocation of production resources, the establishment of sound systems, standardization of product packaging, traceability of logistics and transportation, and export declaration and registration requirements; and
    3. specifying the requirements for the building of quality assurance management systems for exported electronic cigarette products.

    The guidelines are interpreted by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA). The guidelines “shall be implemented” from the date of issuance, according to the STMA.

  • FDA Seeks Input on 5-Year Tobacco Center Strategic Plan

    FDA Seeks Input on 5-Year Tobacco Center Strategic Plan

    Credit: FDA

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) will hold a virtual listening session on Aug. 22 to give the public an opportunity to comment on the five-year plan it developed to advance its mission.

    As part of its response to the Reagan-Udall Foundation evaluation, the CTP plan includes five proposed goal areas that are interconnected with the themes of health equity, science, transparency and stakeholder engagement.

    The proposed goals and the questions that the CTP would like commenters to address are on the agency’s virtual listening session event page.

    Following receipt and consideration of public input, the CTP intends to publish its strategic plan by the end of 2023.

    After introductions, the center will begin the listening session with an overview of the process used to develop the CTP’s strategic plan. Registered speakers will then have approximately four minutes each to verbally share their comments on any topics related to the strategic plan.

    Request to verbally provide open public comment must be submitted by Aug. 14 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

    In addition to this listening session, the public can submit electronic or written comments to the Federal Register notice. Electronic comments must be submitted and written comments must be postmarked by Aug. 29.

  • Lawmakers File Bills To Address FDA CBD Regulation

    Lawmakers File Bills To Address FDA CBD Regulation

    Courtesy: US FDA

    Four U.S. senators separately filed legislation on Thursday that would remove regulatory barriers that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration claims prevent it from allowing CBD sales in the food supply or as dietary supplements.

    The Hemp Access and Consumer Safety Act, which was also introduced last Congress but did not advance, would exempt “hemp, hemp-derived cannabidiol, or a substance containing any other ingredient derived from hemp” from certain federal restrictions while permitting officials to enact labeling and packaging rules, according to media reports.

    Now lawmakers are gearing up to address FDA’s inaction at the subcommittee hearing formally.

    A congressional committee has scheduled a hearing for next week focused on the FDA’s refusal to enact regulations to allow for the marketing of hemp-derived CBD products. And bipartisan and bicameral lawmakers have separately reintroduced a bill to fill the regulatory gap.

    The House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services scheduled the hearing—titled “Hemp in the Modern World: The Years long Wait for FDA Action”—for July 27.

    Rep. James Comer, who chairs the full committee, has sharply criticized FDA after the agency announced in January that it would not be developing CBD regulations, stating that there is not an available pathway to create such rules and it would require congressional action.

    Meanwhile, Comer said in April that his panel would be launching an investigation into the matter, and he requested that the FDA turn over documents related to its decision not to regulate the cannabinoid. Even before the agency made that decision, the congressman expressed his intent to address the lack of rules.

    Jonathan Miller, general counsel to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, will be among those testifying at the meeting, the organization announced in a press release on Thursday.

  • Call for Proposals to Improve Doctors’ Understanding of THR

    Call for Proposals to Improve Doctors’ Understanding of THR

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) has issued a call for proposals to further analyze the findings of its Sermo survey on doctors and propose programs that would help improve doctors’ fluency about smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction (THR), according to a press release.

    The FSFW funded research carried out in 2022 by Sermo, an independent platform and leader in actionable healthcare professional insights that surveyed more than 15,000 doctors online in 11 countries, including China, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. A significant majority of the surveyed doctors mistakenly attributed the negative health effects of smoking to nicotine. 

    An average of 87 percent of doctors agreed, at least moderately, that helping patients quit smoking is a priority; however, 74 percent mistakenly believe nicotine causes a range of illnesses, including lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

    The misperception about nicotine could account for an average of 55 percent of the doctors recommending over-the-counter nicotine-replacement therapies to help patients reduce or quit smoking.

    “It is imperative that doctors get the proper training to learn the facts about nicotine and tobacco harm reduction options that can help their smoking patients quit,” said Muhammad Ahmed, director of health and science research at the FSFW. “With more than 7 million smokers dying annually from smoking-related diseases worldwide, many lives can be saved if doctors become more knowledgeable about the cessation tools available.” 

    “Patients look to doctors for trusted health advice,” said Jed Rose, president and CEO of Rose Research Center and co-inventor of the nicotine patch. “Therefore, it is vital that doctors provide accurate, current advice to smokers about the health risks of smoking cigarettes compared to using products that deliver nicotine without combustion.”

    The survey on doctors showed that 74 percent of doctors on average at least moderately agree that nicotine causes lung, bladder and head/neck/gastric cancer; in the United States, this figure is 70 percent; in Germany, this figure is 78 percent; in China, this figure is 86 percent; in Japan, this figure is 85 percent; 78 percent of doctors on average at least moderately agree that atherosclerosis is caused by nicotine; and 76 percent of doctors on average at least moderately agree that COPD is caused by nicotine.

    On average, 81 percent of the physicians surveyed are at least moderately interested in training focused on smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction.

    The survey also found that while doctors’ conversations with patients who smoke focus on the health benefits of cutting down or quitting (73 percent on average globally) and the health risks of continuing (73 percent on average globally), a comparatively small number of physicians—just over half (56 percent on average globally) on average—recommend cutting down on the amount of smokable tobacco products, and less than half of doctors (48 percent on average globally) help patients develop a plan to quit.

    Researchers interested in submitting a proposal to further analyze these findings should contact support@smokefreeworld.org.

  • Smoore International Issues 2023 Profits Warning

    Smoore International Issues 2023 Profits Warning

    Smoore International Holdings issued a profit warning for the six months ended June 30, 2023.

    The company’s board of directors expects the group’s comprehensive income for the period to be between RMB717.3 million ($100.1 million) and RMB792.8 million, representing a decrease of between 42.7 percent and 48.2 percent from the income reported for the comparable period in 2022.

    The adjusted net profit will be approximately RMB741.4 million to RMB816.9 million, representing a decrease of approximately 43.1 percent to 48.4 percent from the prior-year period.

    Smoore attributed the decline to a decrease in revenue of 9.4 percent. Revenue from the Mainland China market for the period dropped approximately 96.3 percent, and its proportion to total revenue decreased from approximately 30 percent in the 2022 period to approximately 1.2 percent in the most recent six months.

    Although the revenue from Mainland China in the second quarter of 2023 has significantly increased compared with the first quarter of 2023, it is still far below the same period last year.

    During the period, the group’s revenue from overseas markets was approximately RMB5.06 billion, representing a steady growth of approximately 28 percent year-on-year. Among them, the revenue from the U.S. market was approximately RMB2.22 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 26.9 percent.

    With the strengthening of supervision and enforcement of noncompliant products, compliant products are expected to gain more room for sustainable growth in the U.S. market.

    Revenue from Europe and other markets was approximately RMB2.85 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 28.8 percent. The group launched disposable products with a better experience under the compliance framework in this market, which were well received by clients and users, and the revenue from this market continued to grow.

    The increase in revenue from overseas were insufficient to offset the declines in Mainland China.

  • Juul Labs Seeks FDA Authorization for Juul2 System

    Juul Labs Seeks FDA Authorization for Juul2 System

    Credit: Juul Labs

    Juul Labs has submitted a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) for its next-generation vapor platform to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company says its submission includes comprehensive science and evidence for a new device and new tobacco-flavored pods at 18 mg/mL nicotine concentration, as well as information on novel, data-driven technologies to restrict underage access.

    “Our company DNA is product innovation,” said Chief Product Officer Kirk Phelps in a statement. “With our next-generation platform, we have designed a technological solution for two public-health problems: improving adult-smoker switching from combustible cigarettes and restricting underage access to vapor products. This is only the beginning of new tech being developed and refined for the U.S. market and abroad to eliminate combustible cigarettes and combat underage use.”

    Launched initially in the U.K. in 2021 as the JUUL2 System, the new vapor platform delivers an improved vapor experience for adult smokers, utilizes unique Pod ID authentication to address illicit products and incorporates age-verification technology capabilities.

    Our next-generation vapor platform PMTA is built on new technology that advances public-health objectives and compelling science that demonstrates a clear public-health benefit, as required to secure a marketing authorization.

    Joe Murillo, chief regulatory officer, Juul Labs

    According to Juul, features of the next-generation platform include:

    • A more consistent vapor experience that better competes with combustible cigarettes
    • A Bluetooth-enabled device with a larger, long-lasting battery and a “smart light system” that communicates battery life and e-liquid level to the user
    • Newly designed, tamper-resistant pods that enable improved aerosol delivery
    • An innovative heating element that improves product performance and temperature-control precision
    • A unique Pod ID chip that, among other tech capabilities, prevents the use of illicit counterfeit and compatible pods with the next-generation device
    • A mobile and web-based app that enables age-verification technology, including device-locking, and real-time product information and usage insights for age-verified consumers with industry-leading data-privacy protections

    Initial behavioral research of the new platform in the U.K. has demonstrated compelling adoption and switching among adult smokers. Over 32 percent of JUUL2 System users had switched completely from combustible cigarettes six months after purchasing the product. While the currently marketed Juul System has switched over 2 million adult smokers in the U.S., the company looks forward to bringing this new technology to over 28 million adult smokers in the country who continue to smoke combustible cigarettes.

    “Our next-generation vapor platform PMTA is built on new technology that advances public-health objectives and compelling science that demonstrates a clear public-health benefit, as required to secure a marketing authorization,” said Juul Chief Regulatory Officer Joe Murillo. “We look forward to engaging with FDA throughout the review process while we pursue this important harm-reduction opportunity.”

    Juul said it continues to pursue its administrative appeal of the FDA’s stayed decision for the Juul System and believes that it too will receive marketing authorization once a decision is made on science and evidence.

  • PMI to Aquire Medical Marijuana Inhaler Company

    PMI to Aquire Medical Marijuana Inhaler Company

    Syqe Inhaler (CNW Group/Syqe Medical)

    Philip Morris International plans to acquire Syqe Medical, an Israeli company, according to Calcalist. The deal could reach $650 million.

    Syqe’s main product is a metered-dose inhaler for pain reduction using medical marijuana.

    PMI will initially invest $120 million to aid in the process of obtaining U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for Syqe’s inhaler. If approval is received, PMI will purchase all shares of Syqe for $650 million.

    PMI subsidiary Vectura will conduct the transaction.

    In 2016, PMI invested $20 million in Syqe.

  • Health Ministry in India Warns 15 for Online Sales

    Health Ministry in India Warns 15 for Online Sales

    Credit: K Kolosov

    The Union Health Ministry in New Delhi, India, has sent warnings to 15 websites for selling e-cigarettes and ordered them to stop selling and advertising the items. The websites were not announced.

    If those sites do not comply with the law, they will face legal consequences. The government has its eyes on six more websites that may also receive notices soon.

    The Ministry is monitoring online media to ensure that no one is violating the ban on e-cigarettes that was put in place in 2019.

    The notice states that “it has been discovered that your platform is displaying, broadcasting, and sharing information related to the sale of e-cigarettes, which is against the law,” according to The News Agency.

    Four websites have already acknowledged the warning and taken action, while the rest are yet to respond.

    Those who fail to do so within 36 hours may be subjected to fines as stipulated by the IT Act and/or the Electronic Cigarette Prohibition Act.