Tag: news

FDA Publishes List of Legal ENDS Products for US Sales
The list has arrived. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its list of electronic nicotine-delivery system (ENDS) products that can be legally marketed in the U.S. Due to the sheer volume of the list, Vapor Voice has not yet been able to break down the full contents of the list. However, if each of the 15 files the agency published contains 430,000 cells that’s over 6 million individual products.
The publication of the list likely signals the start of enforcement crack-downs. The FDA has already issued 111 warning letters to vapor companies in 2021.
One item that stands out immediately is that one company, JD Nova Group, parent to Vapolocity and De-Ja Juice among others, has filed the majority (an estimated 4 million) of the PMTA submissions.
The FDA stressed it has not independently verified the information provided by applicants about the marketing status of their products. In addition, the list excludes entries of products from companies that did not provide information on current marketing status of their products to the FDA so that the agency could determine whether the existence of the application could be disclosed.
Credit: Hase Hoch
“Please note that FDA has not independently verified the information provided by applicants about the marketing status of their products. In addition, the list does not include entries of products from companies that did not provide information on current marketing status of their products to FDA so that the Agency could determine whether the existence of the application could be disclosed,” the FDA states. “It is important to note that the lists are not comprehensive lists intended to cover all currently marketed deemed tobacco products that a company generally might manufacture, distribute, or sell without risking FDA enforcement.”
The FDA had stated in September of 2020 that it would publish a list of vapor companies that had submitted PMTA’s by the Sept. 9, 2020 deadline. The news came just one week after several retail groups submitted a letter to the agency asking for a published list of applicants. Nearly eight months later the list has been published on the FDA’s website.
Companies that submitted their application by the Sept. 9, 2020, deadline can keep their products on the market for one year pending FDA review.
If a negative action is taken by the FDA on the application prior to Sept. 9, 2021, the product must be removed from the market or risk FDA enforcement. If a positive order is issued by the FDA on a product in the lists, the product will be listed on the positive marketing orders page and may continue to be marketed according to the terms specified in the order letter.
The list consists of 361 companies that filed PMTAs. The company’s on the list are as follows:

10 Days Inc dba Pod Juice

611 Vapes, LLC, dba Erie Shore Vapors

7 Daze LLC

AAA Strate Vape

Abomination LLP

Absolute Vapor Inc.

Absolute Vapor Lounge LLC

ACH Group LLC dba Bomb Bombz E-Liquid

Al Khalifa Group LLC

Alaska Elixirs Vape LLC

Alien Vape LLC

American Vapor Group LLC

American Vapor Inc.

Anna Mae’s

Apollo Future Technology Inc.

ARC LLC

Ashlynn Marketing Group Inc.

Aspire North America LLC

Atlantic Vape Supply

Avail Vapor LLC

Awesome Sauce Vapor, Inc

Axcentria Pharmaceuticals LLC

Axiocore Corporation

Bad Drip Labs Inc.

Baker White Inc.

Balboa Vapes LLC

Beard Vape Company

Bidi Vapor LLC

Big Time Vapes

BJC

Black Note Inc.

Blackbriar Regulatory Services LLC

BLB7 LLC dbaThe Vape Mall

BMF Labs dba Bad Modder Fogger LLC

Bogart Enterprises LLC

Boomtown Vapor LLC

Boss Vapes LLC

Boulder International Inc.

Breeze Smoke LLC

Buckshot Vapors Inc

Cali Steam LLC

California Grown E-liquids LLC

Camelot Distribution

Carolina Wholesale Distributing LLC

Cassadaga Liquids LLC

Central Vapors

Charlie’s Chalk Dust LLC

Cig Free Vape Shop

CITTG dba Orgnx E Liquids

Cloud House LLC

Coastal Clouds Co.

Cool Breeze Vapor LLC

Corso Bleu Vapor Company

Cosco International Inc.

Cosmic Fog Vapors Operating Company LLC

Craving Vapor Industries

Creative Focus LLC dba Red Devil Vapors

CRFT Labs Tennessee LLC

Custom Technologies Inc.

Custom Vapor Blends LLC

Custom Vapors LLC

Decent Juice Co. LLC

Delaware Vapor LLC

Desert Vapors LLC

DFW Vapor Holdings Inc.

Diamond Vapor LLC

DNA Enterprise LLC dba Mech Sauce

Dominant Vapor LLC

Doomsday Gourmet LLC

Dotmod Inc.

Dovpo USA INC.

DR Distributors LLC

Dream Smoke

Drip More LLC

Drippers Vape Shop LLC

DS Technology Licensing LLC

Duke And Drews LLC

E Vapor Hut LLC

E-Alternative Solutions LLC

E-liquid Brands LLC

E-Six LLC

East Coast Liquids

ECBlend LLC

Ecig Charleston

eCig Source

ECS Global LLC

Einstein Vapes LLC

EjuiceBLVD LLP

Electric Smoke Vapor House LLC

Element E-Liquid LLC

Elite Brothers, LLC

Elysian Labs

Essex E Liquid

Evolv LLC

Feel Life Co Limited

Feel Life Health Inc.

Flair Products LLC

Flavor Vapors LLC/ Mob Liquid Labs

Fliq Vapor LLC

Fontem US LLC

Fridays Vapor-ettes LLC

Fuma International LLC

Fumizer LLC

FuZion Vapor LLC

Gentleman’s Draw LLC

GloBrands LLC

Gothic Vapor LLC

Great American Vapes LLC

Great Lakes Vapor

GRIPUM LLC

Ground Zero Vaping

Grove Inc.

Gundo Distro

Heartlandvapes LLC

HMD Investment Group LLC

Holland Resolute Solutions Inc.

Holy Cow eJuice

Hong Kong Man Tin International

Hoosier Vapes Inc.

HotSpot Cafe LLC dba VV-Juice

Howard Enterprises Inc.

Humble Juice Co.

Imperial Vapors LLC

Infamous E Juice

Innevape LLC

Innotel Inc.

INTELLISMOKE, LLC

Ivg Acme

J-Vapor LLC dba North Shore Vapor

Jaded Vapors LLC

Jai Mundi Inc. dba Kai’s Virgin Vapor

JD Nova Group LLC

JDvapour LLC

JMJL Global Inc.

Johnny Copper LLC

JT Wood Investments LLC dba Vape It

Juice Guys Distribution LLC

Juice Roll Upz Inc.

Juicemafia Inc.

JUUL Labs Inc.

Jvapes LLC

Kinghorn Holding LLC

KJJ Enterprises LLC

Kloc Vapor LLC (dba “The Vapor Edge”)

Lady Boss Vapor Inc.

LAS Ventures Limited

Lazarus Vintage Corporation

LDP Designs LLC

LDSD Vapor LLC

Lead by Sales LLC dba White Cloud Cigarettes

LeCig Enterprises Inc.

Licensed E-Liquid Manufacturing

Liquid Art Inc.

Liquid Nics LLC

Liquid Reign Inc.

Logic Technology Development LLC

LoneStar Vapor Shop LLC

Lotus Vaping Technologies LLC

Loveli Design LLC DBA Alice in Vapeland

Ludovico, Inc.

LXJ, LLC

Magellan Technology Inc.

Malicious Liquids Inc.

Maniac Vapor LLC

Marina Technology LLC

Marlin Steam Co., LLC

Matrix Minds LLC

MH Global LLC dba Streamline Vape Co. LLC

Mid Cities Vapor LLC

Midas Vape LLC

Midwest Vape Supply, Inc.

Mighty Vapors, LLC

Millennial One Inc. dba The Finest E-Liquid

Mister-E-Liquid LLC

Mix Masters Inc.

MJ Asset Holdings LLC

MMWTA, Mothers Milk WTA

Mom and Pop Vapor Shop

Mountain Oak Vapors LLC

Mountain Vaporz, LLC

MV Enterprises LLC

My US Eliquids, LLC

My Vape Bar LLC

My Vape Order Inc.

Myle Vape Inc.

Nasty Worldwide SDN BHD

New Orleans Cloud Alchemy LLC

Newhere Inc. dba Madhatter Juice

Nicopure Labs LLC

NicQuid LLC

NJOY LLC

Northeast Vapor Supplies LLC

Northland Vapor Company

Northwest’s Finest ELiquid LLC

Nu-Tech Holdings LLC

Nude Nicotine Inc.

Ohm Slaw Juice LLC / Ohm Slaw Vapors dba Justin Parrott

One Up Vapor LLC

Opt2mist Vapor Shop LLC

Osment Enterprises LLC dba The Vapor Apothecary

Oueis Gas Inc. dba Oasis Vape

OVapes Ejuice LLC

Paradigm Distribution

Parallel Direct LLC dba The Magic Mist

Perfect Vape LLC

Performance Plus Marketing Inc.

Pettee & D’Sylva Enterprises

Phantasm Vapors LLC

Phatty’s E-Liquid

Pixotine Products Inc.

Planet of the Vapes, LLC (MD21122)

Pop Vapor Co. LLC

Prohibition Juice Co.

Propaganda E-Liquid LLC

Prophet Premium Blends LLC

Public Bru Inc.

Puff Labs LLC

Pure Cigs LLC

Quad City Vapers Club LLC

J. Reynolds Vapor Company

Red Shield Reserve Inc.

Redwood Ejuice LLC

Riot Labs Ltd

Ripe Vapes Inc.

Rock Ridge Vapor LLC

Rogue Liquids

Rogue Vapers LLC

Romo LLC dba CrossBar

Royalty Premium E Juice LLC

RP Vapors, Inc.

Ruthless Vapor Corporation

S. Vape Brands Inc. dba Monster Vape Labs

Sadboy LLC

Saffire Vapor

Saucy Los Angeles

Savage Enterprises

Save A Smoker

Science Holdings LLC

Seattle Vapor Co LLC

Securience LLC

Shenzhen First Union Technology Co. LTD.

Shenzhen Greensound High-Tech Co Ltd

Shenzhen Innokin Technology Co., Ltd

Shenzhen IVPS Technology Co.Ltd.

Shenzhen Smoore Technology Limited

Shenzhen Vaporesso Technology Limited

Shenzhen Yibo Technology Co. Ltd.

Shenzhen Youme Information Technology Co. Ltd

Shop Vapes Inc

Simple Vapor Company

Simply Vapour

Sir Vapes-A-Lot LLC.

Smax International LLC

Smokeless Smoking Inc.

SN Holdings Inc

Soft Vape Inc

South Beach Holdings LLC

South Coast Vapor Company

Southwest Smokeless

Spring Vapor, LLC

SSY Ejuice Inc.

Stark Vapor LLC

Steep Slope Vape Supply

Super Dope Laboratories

SV Packaging LLC

SV3 LLC

SWT Global Supply Inc.

Synergy Mixing Labs LLC

Taffy Splash

Tampa Vapor Inc

Tasty Cloud Vape Co. LLC

Tasty Haze LLC

Tasty Puff LLC

Teardrip Holdings Inc.

Texas Select Ventures LLC dba Texas Select Vapor

Texas Smoke Accessories

Texas Tobacco Barn LLC dba Ciggy Shack

Texas Tobacco Barn LLC dba TXVapeBarn

That 1 Vape

The AVE E-Cigarette and Vapor

The Company MFG

The Ecig Cafe LLC

The Jones Lab Inc.

The Michigan Juice Company LLC

The Plume Room LLC

The Schwartz E Liquid dba USA Vape Lab

The Vape Lounge Inc.

The Vape Stop

The Vaping Oasis LLC

The Vaping Tiger LLC

The Vapor Outlet of Wyoming LLC dba Juicity Vapor

The Vapor Vendor LLC

The Zen Vaper E-Liquids LLC

Tinted Brew, Inc

Toe Toe Inc. dba Juana Vape

Town Vapor Co.

TPB International LLC

Treehouse Vapor Co. DBA Flagship Vapor

Trendsetters E-Liquid LLC

True Lab Creations

TruVibe Inc. dba Vapor Station FDL

Turncoat Industries Inc.

Twelfth State Brands LLC

Twisted Tongue Inc.

UIS Manufacturing, LLC

Underdog E Liquids LLC

Union Street Brands

Unique eCigs Inc.

Valley Vapors LLC

Vape Craft Inc

Vape Crusaders Premium E-Liquid LLC

Vape Element LLC dba BLVK Unicorn

Vape Hut Inc.

Vape of A Kind Inc.

Vape On LLC dba Imperial Vapor Co.

VapeDaugz LLC

Vapejoose, Inc.

Vaper Generation LLC

VaperMate LLC

Vapetasia LLC

Vapewear Inc.

Vapology Inc.

Vapor Bank E-Liquid LLC

Vapor Depot LLC

Vapor Plus Ok

Vapor Rage LLC

Vapor Salon

Vapor Select Inc.

Vapor Solutions & Labs

Vapor Source Inc.

Vapor Stockroom LLC

Vapor Stop

Vapor Studios LLC dba The Vapor Studio

Vapor Trail LLC dba Mig Vapor

Vapor Unlimited LLC

Vapor Ventures Inc dba Innovated Vapors

Vaporized Inc.

Vapornine LLC dba New Leaf Vapor Company

Vapors of Ohio Inc. dba Nostalgic Vapes

Verdict Vapors LLC

Vertigo Vapor Inc.

Victory Liquid LLC

Victory Vapor Inc.

Victory Vapor Wholesale Inc

VIM Blends Inc.

Vintage & Vapor Marketplace Inc.

Viper Vapor LLC

Vital Vapers LLC

VPR Collection

VR Labs LLC

Wadina Distribution LLC DBA GOST Vapor

Wages & White Lion Investments LLC dba Triton Distribution

Walker Enterprises LLC dba MaddCatt Vapors

Wall 2 Wall Vape

Warlock Vapes LLC dba Zuluvape

What A Smoke LLC

Wyoming Vapor Company

Xtreme Vapes LLC

Yogi’s Vape

Yoshicon LLC dba Vapergate

Zen RVA LLC
This story will be updated as information becomes available.
May 20, 2021
Study Suggests Teen Vapers Would have Been Smokers
A new study has concluded that teens who use e-cigarettes would have likely become combustible cigarette smokers if vaping products did not exist. Published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, researchers found that “vaping is largely concentrated among non-smoking youth who would likely have smoked prior to the introduction of e-cigarettes, and the introduction of e-cigarettes has coincided with an acceleration in the decline in youth smoking rates.”
Credit: Krystian Graba
Dr. Natasha Sokol, a fellow at Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, and Dr. Justin Feldman, a fellow at Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, wanted to find whether there was any truth to the so-called “gateway” theory: the idea that vaping, for teenagers, is a path toward smoking. The results they found is that e-cigarettes may be an important tool for population-level harm reduction, even considering their impact on youth.
Sokol and Feldman ran a regression analysis of 12th-graders with data culled from the “Monitoring the Future” report, a survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) that measures different forms of drug use by adolescents nationwide. The researcher’s modeling examined variables including age, race and ethnicity, geographic region of residency, grade point average, alcohol consumption and parents’ educational attainment, among several others. The end goal was to determine whether youth who used vaping products between 2014 and 2018 would have become smokers.
“Our model predicted smoking prevalence quite accurately prior to the availability of e-cigarettes,” Sokol told Filter. “But once e-cigarettes became available in a widespread way, it increasingly overestimated the prevalence [of smoking]. So the prevalence was decreasing, but our model based on a pre-e-cigarette era was predicting a decrease but not as steep. [The youth] who had a low propensity to smoke after e-cigarettes were available were exceedingly unlikely to use e-cigarettes.”
The researchers concluded that the youth who do vape are generally those who would have been smoking were vapes unavailable. “The decline in youth smoking,” Sokol continued, “really accelerated after the availability of e-cigarettes.”
“There are two bits of good news in this,” Clive Bates, a tobacco control expert and former director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), told Filter. “The first is that young smokers will be diverted into vaping and probably spared a life of smoking. The second is that most of the vaping among kids who never would have been smokers will be pretty transient and likely not persist after a period of experimentation.”
May 20, 2021
WHO Reiterates its Opposition to Harm Reduction

Photo: Olrat
In the runup to World No Tobacco day on May 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reasserted its abstinence-only approach to nicotine.
In a May 19 press release titled “Quit tobacco to be a winner,” the WHO said that the tobacco industry has “promoted e-cigarettes as cessation aids under the guises of contributing to global tobacco control” while employing “strategic marketing tactics to hook children on this same portfolio of products, making them available in over 15,000 attractive flavors.”
The agency also insisted that the scientific evidence on e-cigarettes as cessation aids was inconclusive, and that “switching from conventional tobacco products to e-cigarettes is not quitting.”
“We must be guided by science and evidence, not the marketing campaigns of the tobacco industry—the same industry that has engaged in decades of lies and deceit to sell products that have killed hundreds of millions of people,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “E-cigarettes generate toxic chemicals, which have been linked to harmful health effects such as cardiovascular disease and lung disorders.”
We must be guided by science and evidence, not the marketing campaigns of the tobacco industry.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general, WHO
The global health body also reiterated its commitment to excluding the tobacco industry from the debate through article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
“The tobacco industry is the single greatest barrier to reducing deaths caused by tobacco use,” the WHO wrote. “Their interests are irreconcilably opposed to promoting public health and point to a critical need to keep them out of global tobacco control efforts.”
The organization also cited the United Nations Global Compact, which banned the tobacco industry from participation in 2017. “In line with Article 5.3, industry has been entirely excluded from the UN system and its agencies have been urged to devise strategies to prevent industry interference,” the WHO wrote.
May 20, 2021
Bates: Complaints About ‘Special Juul Issue’ Absurd

Clive Bates
Recent complaints about The American Journal of Health Behavior “Special Issue on Juul” are absurd, anti-scientific and somewhat disturbing, according to Clive Bates, director of The Counterfactual.
In a letter to the editor, Bates said the Juul Labs monograph provides highly salient information on changes in smoking status, drivers of transition, population health impact and retailer behaviors. “The summary for the introduction to the series should be enough to whet the appetite of the genuinely curious and scientifically engaged,” he wrote.
According to Bates, the fact that research is done by company in the nicotine-delivery business does not invalidate the findings. In his view, Juul’s scientists have done excellent work that stands on its merits and has now been published after thorough peer review in a reputable journal with transparent disclosure of its provenance.
“The real question here is why these tobacco control activists show so little curiosity about the changes that are reshaping the U.S. tobacco and nicotine market,” he wrote. “As Juul rose in popularity, we saw unusually rapid declines in cigarette sales and smoking prevalence in both adults and adolescents.
“The right response to that is to want to know more. The wrong response is to try to suppress or discredit informative data and analysis just because it tells a story that is at variance with a narrative about the evils of both e-cigarettes and the companies that make them.”
May 20, 2021
Netherlands Pressed to Restrict ENDS Ahead of COP9

Photo: vichie81
Anti-smoking groups and pharmaceuticals company Pfizer are urging the next Dutch government to extend smoking bans and restrict tobacco alternatives such as e-cigarettes, reports Dutch News.
The outgoing government has increased cigarette prices and limited sales outlets as steps towards a smoke free generation by 2040, and the number of smokers has gone down from 25 percent to 20 percent in the last five years.
However, even though there are fewer smokers, the total amount of tobacco being consumed has remained stable. “The remaining smokers are smoking more,” campaigner Wanda de Kanter told Financieele Dagblad.
De Kanter is skeptical about Philip Morris International’s attempts to market its IQOS tobacco-heating device as a less-risky alternative to smoking. The multinational is trying to persuade the Dutch government to relax rules around such products. Health institute RIVM has stated that heated tobacco still contains cancer causing substances and can damage lung cells.

I am concerned about these reports, especially in light of the global World Health Organization’s COP9 summit which takes place in the Netherlands in November 2021.
John Dunne, Director-General, UKVIA
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) warned that cracking down on smoking alternatives would be counterproductive.
“To further reduce smoking rates in the Netherlands, legislators should be embracing alternative tobacco products, such as vaping—not introducing stricter regulations which will only serve to facilitate tobacco consumption,” the group wrote in a press note. “Adopting an evidence-based approach, like that which has been successful in the United Kingdom, will help cement the concept of tobacco harm reduction.”
“I am concerned about these reports, especially in light of the global World Health Organization’s COP9 summit which takes place in the Netherlands in November 2021,” said UKVIA Director-General John Dunne.
“Smoking-related illness still kills many thousands of people each year in both the U.K. and the Netherlands. It is imperative on both governments to do all that they can to reduce this number of smoking related deaths. They should trust the science and the overwhelming evidence and embrace vaping products and e-cigarettes. They are the most popular and effective nicotine replacement products on the market.”
May 19, 2021
FDA Drops 7 More Warning Letters, Total Now 111
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued seven more warning letters to vapor companies for selling illegal products. The total now stands at 111 for the number of warning letters the regulatory agency has issued to vapor companies in 2021. The FDA accuses the companies of selling vapor products without having submitted a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) by Sept. 9, 2020.
Credit: Trend Objects
The companies all received their letters on May 7, however the FDA didn’t post the letters on its website until May 18. The companies receiving letters include:

Nicotine Nirvana, which has over 50 products registered with the FDA;

FF Vapors, which has over 257,000 registered products with the FDA;

JP & SN Enterprises Inc. d/b/a eCigs International, which has over 4,500 products listed with the FDA;

The Iron Crow, which has 400 products listed with the FDA;

Sema International, which has over 500 products listed with the FDA;

Central Iowa Electronic Cigarettes, which has over 3,400 products listed with the FDA;

High Voltage Vaporz, which has over 600 products registered with the FDA.
The FDA often only lists a few products that a company is selling as illegal in the letter. It then states that there may be more, but it is impossible to know if the warnings encompass all the company’s registered products. The agency states that it is the responsibility of the company to only sell products with a submitted PMTA. Companies have until Sept. 9, 2021 to sell product unless the agency makes a decision on the PMTA approval or grants an extension.
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.
May 19, 2021
Philippines Set to Change, Lessen Vapor Regulations
The Philippines House of Representatives passed today on second reading a bill that would lower the minimum age to buy and use e-cigarettes and other vapor products from 21 to 18 years old. This is after the country’s Congress previously passed Republic Act No. 11467, which imposed taxes on vapes and e-cigarettes and set the age to purchase at 21. Less than two years ago, the country banned vaping entirely.
Credit: Carsten Reisinger
The previously passed law also banned the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes to nonsmokers and prohibited flavorings, according to philstar.com. The new proposal, which is just a step away from clearing the House, largely loosens the restrictions put in place by the current law. While all but tobacco flavorings are currently banned, the new bill allows for “plain fruit flavors, nuts, coffee, tea, vanilla, caramel, tobacco, menthol and mint.”
The latest bill would also take away from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate e-cigarettes and vapor products and transfers it to the Department of Trade and Industry, as proponents argued that these are not health products. The bill also allows the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes online, provided that the website will restrict access to those below 18 years old and will display signages required by the proposal.
The latest bill also includes language to allow the advertisement of vapes and e-cigarettes in retail establishments, through direct marketing and on the internet, although it qualified that these ads must not be targeted to minors, must not undermine quit-smoking messages and should not encourage non-smokers to use them.
The new measure also prohibits the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes within 100 meters from a school, playground or other facility frequented by minors and bans the use of vapor products and e-cigarettes in all enclosed public places except in designated vaping areas.
May 19, 2021
IQOS Driving Momentum and Opportunity for PMI

Jacek Olczak
Presenting at the Goldman Sachs Global Staples Forum on May 18, Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak highlighted the next steps in the company’s strategy to becoming a majority smoke-free company in terms of net revenue by 2025.
Olczak highlighted IQOS’ strong and accelerating topline momentum and potentially lucrative opportunities to expand beyond nicotine into broader lifestyle/wellness markets, such as high-margin botanicals and respiratory drug delivery.
IQOS added more than 1.5 million users in the first quarter of 2021, according to Olczak—well above its historical average of 1 million new users per quarter. Robust conversions at 70 percent to 80 percent continue to dwarf the average conversion rates of many vapor products, which are in the mid-teens.
The heat-not-burn device is now available in 66 markets, with a user base of 19.1 million, of which 14 million have stopped smoking and fully converted to IQOS.
Olczak was particularly excited about the launch, scheduled for the second half of 2021, of PMI’s ILUMA IQOS product, which he believes could drive even higher conversion rates and margins as PMI continues to leverage its fixed cost base on IQOS while streamlining its customer acquisition and retention.
Olczak also reviewed management’s ongoing efforts to digitalize and simplify business processes, including PMI’s commercialization strategies around IQOS. According to him, these efforts have already yielded $60 million of gross savings in selling, general and administrative expenses toward management’s target of $1 billion in 2021–2023.
Olczak believes that PMI’s digitalization efforts will not only further reduce the cost of acquiring and retaining new users and ultimately drive more profitable growth but also accelerate conversion and customer acquisition, especially with the eventual global rollout of PMI’s digital customer experience.
Olczak also touched on PMI’s longer term opportunities beyond heat-not-burn and vaping, including nicotine pouches and next-generation devices.
Management is also looking into adjacencies, such as broader lifestyle/wellness markets, such as high-margin botanicals (including pure CBD) and respiratory drug delivery. The company aspires to achieve at least $1 billion in incremental net revenue from its beyond nicotine efforts by 2025.
Olczak expressed optimism about PMI’s competitive advantages in terms of its capabilities around product safety and efficacy and validating/substantiating scientific claims.
May 19, 2021
Celebrity Website Profiles RLX Founder Kate Wang

Photo: RLX Technology
The Celebrity Net Worth website recently published a profile of RLX Technology Founder Kate Wang, who the publication describes as one of the richest self-made women in the world.
Wang graduated from Jiatong University with a degree in finance in 2005 and took a management trainee job at Proctor & Gamble in Guangzhou. In 2011, she moved to New York City to get her Master of Business Administration degree at Columbia.
After grad school, Wang spent a year at the Beijing office of Bain & Co. She then moved to Uber China, followed by the Chinese ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing, which merged with Uber China in 2016.
In 2017, Wang tried e-cigarettes to help her quit smoking, but she found the Chinese offerings available at the time to be terrible. She saw an opportunity and decided to focus on older smokers who were trying to quit, like her father, who was suffering the health consequences from his two-packs-per-day habit.
Through crowdfunding on JD.com, Wang raised $6 million in seed capital in June 2018, positioning the RLX Technology as a tech startup.
After a little more than a year of operation, RLX had garnered almost half of the largely unregulated domestic vaping market in China.
In January, RLX went public on the New York Stock Exchange and raised $1.4 billion.
However, when Chinese regulators in October 2019 banned internet sales of e-cigarettes to discourage underage vaping, 20 percent of the company’s business evaporated overnight.
Undeterred, RLX started building a physical store presence. In January 2020, RLX opened a flagship store in Shanghai. Today, RLX has more than 5,000 stores in 250 cities in China. The company requires ID and put facial recognition in place to prevent minors from shopping for e-cigarettes in RLX stores. RLX still has more than 60 percent of China’s growing e-cigarette market.
Despite the challenges, RLX’s sales grew 147 percent to $585 million in 2020, up from $19 million in 2018.
In March, however, Chinese regulators revealed a draft of rules that would reclassify e-cigarettes as tobacco products and bring them under the control of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA). Such a move would greatly diminish vapor companies’ potential earnings. All tobacco products in China are sold through government-owned stores. In response to the news, the share price of RLX dropped 54 percent—erasing $16 billion from the company’s market cap.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it would begin enforcing a law that Chinese companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange would have to provide audits or be de-listed.
In the worst-case scenario, Wang would be forced to sell at a price set by China Tobacco (which would likely jeopardize most, if not all, of her profit) and be forced to de-list in the U.S.
May 19, 2021
Trade Commission: IQOS Infringes on Vuse Patents

Photo: JHVEPhoto
Philip Morris International’s IQOS device infringes two patents owned by British American Tobacco subsidiary Reynolds American Inc., reports Bloomberg, citing a note posted by Judge Clark Cheney on the U.S. International Trade Commission’s website.
The next step is a likely review by the full commission, which has the power to halt products at the U.S. border and is scheduled to complete the investigation by Sept. 15.
IQOS is the only heat-not-burn product authorized for sale in the U.S., where it’s sold by Altria. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed the company to market IQOS as reducing consumers’ exposure to harmful chemicals found in cigarettes.
Reynolds claims PMI and Altria copied patented technology that it had developed for its Vuse Vibe and Vuse Solo vaping products, for which it’s filed for FDA approval. The company complained to the ITC in April 2020.
Altria responded with its own patent-infringement claims, and a separate suit against Reynolds in May. Altria also lodged petitions with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office challenging the validity of a half-dozen Reynolds’ patents.

The judge has to make a determination on whether even temporarily removing such products is appropriate for public health and what alternatives there are for consumers.
Andre Calantzopoulos, executive chairman, PMI
Reynolds said it expects the judge will recommend an import ban, adding that the unauthorized use of its inventions “undermines our ability to invest and innovate and thereby reduce the health impact of our business.”
Philip Morris called the judge’s findings “one step in a long process that does not have an immediate effect” and it will present its position to the commission.
“BAT’s litigation in the U.S. is part of a worldwide attempt—which has been entirely unsuccessful to date—that is meant to undermine the heated-tobacco segment, where they lag far behind,” the company said.
PMI has also argued that, even if a patent violation is found, it’s not in the public’s interest to keep the IQOS out of the U.S.
“The judge has to make a determination on whether even temporarily removing such products is appropriate for public health and what alternatives there are for consumers,” said PMI Executive Chairman Andre Calantzopoulos. “If we remove a product that exists, and the only alternative that people have are cigarettes, it’s a consideration of public-health interest and that has to be taken into account.”
May 18, 2021