Tag: Juul Labs

  • Juul Labs Submits PMTA for JUUL2 Menthol Pods

    Juul Labs Submits PMTA for JUUL2 Menthol Pods

    Credit: Piter2121

    Juul Labs announced on Tuesday that it is seeking FDA approval for its new menthol-flavored pods. The JUUL2 pods require age verification and are designed to be used with Juul’s e-cigarette device, which is currently under regulatory review.

    The new menthol-flavored pods have a nicotine concentration of 18 mg/mL and are Juul’s latest premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submission to the FDA, according to media reports.

    This follows a submission Juul Labs made in July for a vaporizer with a unique Pod ID chip to prevent the use of counterfeit cartridges and restrict underage access. The July application included a proposal for tobacco-flavored pods.

    The vaporizer is already on sale in the UK after its launch in 2021 as the JUUL2 System.

    The menthol pod contains a secure microchip that communicates a requirement for age verification to the device before use. The device can be locked by users at any time to prevent unauthorized usage.

    To mitigate the risk of social sourcing, Juul said it would limit not only the number of devices that can be purchased but also the number of new devices each unique age-verified user can activate and use with menthol-flavored pods.

    So far, the FDA has authorized only 23 e-cigarette products for sale in the United States, all of them tobacco-flavored. The agency has denied menthol e-cigarette applications from several high-profile manufacturers, including British American Tobacco, which is appealing those decisions.

    Juul Labs said in a statement it has submitted evidence showing its new menthol pods can help more cigarette smokers transition from smoking than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.

  • Vuse Market-Share Lead Over Juul Continues to Grow

    Vuse Market-Share Lead Over Juul Continues to Grow

    Credit: Konstiantyn Zapylaie

    R.J. Reynolds’ top-selling Vuse electronic cigarette saw an increase in market share after a recent small decline, according to the latest Nielsen convenience store report for the four-week period ending Dec. 2.

    Vuse’s market share rose from 41.5 percent to 42 percent, surpassing No. 2 Juul which dropped from 24.7 percent to 24.3 percent.

    In May 2019, Juul held a dominant 74.6 percent share of the U.S. e-cigarette market, but regulatory actions led to a decrease in product availability.

    Despite Altria Group’s ownership of No. 3 NJoy, their market share remained stagnant at 2.6 percent.

    Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs, affiliated with Imperial Brands Plc, also had no change in market share at 1.2 percent. Overall, the e-cigarette category saw an 8 percent decline during this period.

  • North Carolina Gets $7.8 Million More From Juul Labs

    North Carolina Gets $7.8 Million More From Juul Labs

    Credit: Adobe

    North Carolina will receive an additional $7.8 million from Juul as part of his first-in-the-nation agreement to hold the e-cigarette maker accountable for its role in marketing and selling e-cigarettes to young people.

    In all, the state will receive $47.8 million, said Attorney General Josh Stein in a release. North Carolina has settled its original lawsuit with Juul Labs for $40 million. 

    “The vaping epidemic is far from over, and these additional funds will help us keep more kids healthy,” said Stein. “Vaping is dangerous to kids’ health, and we must continue to do everything in our power to keep them nicotine-free.”

    Stein was the first attorney general in the nation to file a suit against Juul Labs for allegedly sparking a vaping epidemic among teenagers.

    His agreement required the company to make far-reaching changes to how Juul Labs conducts business, including not marketing to people under 21, not using social media advertising, and verifying the ages of people who buy its products.

    The money from the settlement is being used by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to prevent e-cigarette addiction, help those who are addicted quit, and fund important e-cigarette research.

    As part of Attorney General Stein’s agreement, Juul Labs must also make public a large number of documents it produced in the lawsuit.

    The first batch of documents from that document depository will be available through a partnership between the University of North Carolina and the University of California, San Francisco in early 2024.

    The documents reportedly will shed light on Juul’s marketing and research and will help prevent other companies from using the same playbook.

  • Vuse Continues to Grow Market Share Over Juul

    Vuse Continues to Grow Market Share Over Juul

    Credit: RJR Vapor Co.

    The latest Nielsen convenience store report covering the period ending November 4th shows the market share for R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.’s Vuse electronic cigarette continues to grow over rival Juul.

    Vuse’s market share rose from 41.8% to 42.1%, compared with No. 2 Juul being unchanged at 24.4%.

    As recently as May 2019, Juul held a 74.6% U.S. market share in the electronic cigarette category. That’s when a series of regulatory actions led to product-reduction concessions by Juul.

    Meanwhile, Altria Group’s ownership of No. 3 NJoy hasn’t resulted in a meaningful market-share increase so far. It remained unchanged at 2.5%, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

    Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs, an affiliate of Imperial Brands Plc, was unchanged at 1.3%.

    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.

    Altria Group and British American Tobacco have issued a warning about the surge in “illicit” synthetic nicotine electronic cigarettes in the U.S. vaping market. Both companies have estimated those synthetic products represent about half of the overall domestic market.

    In July, BAT’s president and chief executive Tadeu Marroco expressed his frustration to analysts about the proliferation of “unauthorized products” in the U.S. vapor market.

    Marroco’s concerns come in large part because of the pivotal revenue role Vuse is playing toward BAT achieving its fiscal 2024 goal of achieving annual profitability for its new-category products and its 2025 goal of at least $6.4 billion in new-category product revenue.

    By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was down 1% in the latest report, while NJoy was down 13.7% and blu eCigs were down 15%. The overall e-cigarette category was down 8.1%.

    The recent heightened pressure on overall tobacco industry volumes and sales remained steady over the four-week period.

    The Nielsen report reflects the banning of traditional menthol cigarettes in California in December, which represents about 8% of the national marketplace.

  • Juul Labs Raises Estimated $1.3 Billion in Funding

    Juul Labs Raises Estimated $1.3 Billion in Funding

    Credit: OleksandrO

    Juul Labs has raised an estimated $1.3 billion in funding, reports Reuters.

    The company has been seeking financing alternatives in a bid to protect its business as it deals with lawsuits related to the marketing of its e-cigarettes.

    Earlier this year, Juul announced a company restructuring aimed at reducing operating costs and positioning the company to continue to advance its mission during a period of regulatory and marketplace uncertainty.

    In April, the company agreed to pay $462 million over eight years to settle claims by six U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia, that it unlawfully marketed its addictive products to minors.

    In November 2022, the company secured funding from some of its early investors to help keep it afloat while cutting about 400 jobs and reducing its operating budget.

    Altria Group exited its stake in Juul earlier this year, days before announcing its purchase of Njoy Holdings for about $2.8 billion.

  • Oct. 11: Netflix to Debut Documentary on Juul Labs

    Oct. 11: Netflix to Debut Documentary on Juul Labs

    The Netflix documentary Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul will premiere on Oct. 11. Netflix states the docuseries is “a scrappy electronic cigarette startup becomes a multibillion-dollar company until an epidemic causes its success to go up in smoke.”

    Helen Redmond of Filter wrote that she was prepared to hate-watch the docuseries, directed by R.J. Cutler, in her review of the show.

    “The name alone pissed me off because of its implied conflation of Juul, which is not a tobacco company, with ‘Big Tobacco.’ The trailer is a feverish montage of talking heads and voiceover accusing the company of being ‘wildly irresponsible,’ photos of hospitalized patients with bloody chest tubes, and a clip of James Monsees, one of Juul’s founders, being called ‘a marketer of poison to young people’ at a congressional hearing,” she wrote.

    She also states that she “was happily shocked” when the series presented a alternate viewpoint.

    The docuseries is based on TIME journalist Jaime Ducharme’s book, Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul.

  • Florida Sues Juul Labs for Marketing to Youth

    Florida Sues Juul Labs for Marketing to Youth

    Credit: Insurance Journal

    Florida’s attorney general, Ashley Moody, has filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs, alleging that the company improperly marketed its products to children and offered misleading information about its products’ nicotine content, reports WUSF.

    The suit was filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court. It seeks civil penalties and an injunction to prevent Juul “targeting children through their marketing and product design and from deceiving consumers with respect to the nicotine concentration.”

    “Juul relentlessly marketed to underage users with launch parties, advertisements using trendy-looking and young models, social media posts and free samples,” the lawsuit states. “It created a technology-focused, sleek design that could be easily concealed and sold its product in flavors known to be attractive to underage users. Juul also manipulated the chemical composition of its product to make the vapor less harsh on the throats of the young and inexperienced consumers it courted. To preserve its young customer base, Juul relied on age verification techniques that it knew were ineffective.”

    Juul responded to the lawsuit, stating that “it is disappointing to see the Florida attorney general direct her state’s resources to suing Juul Labs.”

    Juul’s response sets out “a few facts that should be understood,” including that “Florida’s attorney general initially led the negotiations between the state attorneys general and Juul Labs. For reasons that have not been explained to the public, she ultimately decided not to participate in a settlement to which 48 states and territories are now party to. Had she done so, like all those other jurisdictions, Florida would have its share of millions of dollars to help combat underage use and develop cessation programs. Instead, the Florida attorney general has now embarked on a drawn-out, expensive and uncertain legal process.”

    “Second,” the response continued, “Florida today suffers from the highest sales in the nation of illicit and potentially harmful disposable products emanating from China. These products are not in compliance with the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s] regulatory regime and, in many cases, are flagrantly targeting the state’s children. By contrast, over the past four years, Juul Labs has taken meaningful steps, including ceasing distribution of nontobacco, nonmenthol products in advance of FDA guidance on flavors, halting mass market product advertising, and restructuring our entire company with an emphasis on combating underage use. In part, due to these efforts, we have seen underage use of Juul products cut by 95 percent.”

    The response went on to allege that “Florida has the highest sales of these mostly foreign-made products in the United States, with over 60 percent of vapor sales dominated by disposables whose companies often disregard responsible practices with inappropriate flavor names and questionable marketing. Over the past months, we have been engaged with the attorney general’s office to help create a best-in-class program to combat illicit products. Even though Juul Labs plans to fight this case vigorously, the company remains ready to help Florida stem the tide of the proliferation of Chinese-made disposable products that have found what amounts to be a safe haven for foreign-made illegal vapor products.”

  • Juul Labs to Restructure and Reduce Employees

    Juul Labs to Restructure and Reduce Employees

    Juul Labs has announced a company restructuring aimed at reducing operating costs and positioning the company to continue to advance its mission during a period of regulatory and marketplace uncertainty.

    According to a press release, the principal aim of this restructuring is to enable the company to maximize profitability and cash-flow generation while continuing to invest in its core priorities, which include delivery of high-quality products to its commercial partners, ongoing development of next-generation products, engagement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding Juul’s pending and possible future market authorization applications, and commercial growth consistent with compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

    With these operating cost reductions, Juul Labs says it is positioned to increase its adjusted EBITDA margins and generate meaningful free cash flow before litigation settlements. In doing so, the company will reduce its need to access capital pre-premarket tobacco product application, extend its time horizon to continue its pursuit of market orders from the FDA and generate positive equity value as the company pays down liabilities over time.

    Juul says it remains fundamentally optimistic about the prospects for Juul Labs Inc.—“a view rooted in our belief that our technology and our pipeline of new innovations represent the most valuable ever brought forward to transition adult smokers away from cigarettes while combating underage use,” the company wrote on its website.

  • Altria Seeks U.S. Importation Ban of Juul Products

    Altria Seeks U.S. Importation Ban of Juul Products

    Image: inimalGraphic

    Njoy has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban on the importation and sale of certain Juul products, including its currently marketed Juul device and Juul pods, citing patent infringements.  

    “Protecting our intellectual property is critical to achieving our vision,” said Murray Garnick, executive vice president and general counsel of Njoy parent company Altria Group, in a statement. “Juul has infringed upon our patents through the sale of its imported products, and we ask the ITC to impose appropriate remedies in response to these trade violations.”

    Njoy has also filed a complaint against Juul in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware based on the same patent infringement. Njoy Ace is currently the only pod-based e-vapor product to have received marketing authorization from the FDA, which deemed the marketing of the ACE device and three ACE tobacco-flavored pods as “appropriate for the protection of public health.”

    Njoy’s ITC complaint against Juul alleges trade violations associated with the sale of imported products that, according to Njoy, infringe U.S. Patent No. 11,497,864 and U.S. Patent No. 10,334,881. Njoy acquired the Asserted Patents from Fuma International, concurrently with the settlement of a patent infringement lawsuit filed against the company by Fuma.

    Njoy’s complaint is the latest development in a broader intellectual property dispute.

    In July, Juul Labs asked the ITC to block sales and imports of Njoy Ace, claiming that the product infringes several Juul patents. It has also filed a complaint against Njoy with the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

    Juul Labs complain also targets Altria Group, which agreed to acquire the NJOY in March after exchanging its minority investment in Juul for a heated tobacco product intellectual property license.

  • Juul Labs Working to Raise $1 Billion in Funding

    Juul Labs Working to Raise $1 Billion in Funding

    Credit: Jet City Image

    Juul Labs is seeking to raise about $1 billion, reports Bloomberg News

    The e-cigarette manufacturer, which had about $800 million in revenue in 2022, is reportedly working with Jefferies Financial Group for the fundraising.

    In July, the company said it was exploring options including financing alternatives, to protect its business and help refinance an existing loan, as it dealt with lawsuits related to the marketing of its e-cigarettes.

    In November 2022, Juul secured a cash infusion to keep the company in business while it appeals the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial order related to its vapor products.

    A pioneer in the vaping business, Juul Labs has gone from dominating the U.S. e-cigarette market to fighting for its survival in a relatively short time.

    Following its initial success, the company quickly came under regulatory scrutiny over its marketing practices. Critics blame Juul Labs for contributing to an “epidemic” of underage vaping.