After the Eclipse

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco is attempting to start a new chapter with its Eclipse heat-not-burn product, according to a story by Richard Craver for the Winston-Salem Journal.

Craver said that Eclipse’s technology was considered to be ‘ahead of its time’ when developed in the 1990s, but that it had struggled to gain traction with smokers.

But in July, Reynolds entered the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory system with a substantial-equivalence application, according to an investor presentation on Wednesday by parent company British American Tobacco.

A substantial-equivalence filing is for products that either have the same characteristics as those marketed on/before February 15, 2007, or have different characteristics but do not raise different questions of public health.

“Our application is for an improved version of Eclipse based on the grandfathered version of the product,” Reynolds spokesman David Howard said.

Howard said the improvements targeted the “sensory characteristics and ease of lighting” of Eclipse.

“There is no definitive timetable for [FDA] review, but we are optimistic it will be completed in the near future,” he said.

In the case of Eclipse, smokers light a carbon tip that heats air that, as it is inhaled, passes over a tobacco blend, picking up the flavors of that blend.

Craver’s story is at: http://www.journalnow.com/business/reynolds-pursues-another-restart-with-revamped-heat-not-burn-cigarette/article_2be640ec-f0e8-517e-a9ff-8bee3b0fdf07.html.