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Year: 2023

  • CAPHRA Reports on FCTC Harm Reduction

    CAPHRA Reports on FCTC Harm Reduction

    Photo: Maren Winter

    The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has released its Shadow Report on the (NON)-Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Article 1 (d) on Harm Reduction Strategies. The report is now available to policymakers, regulators in member states and FCTC officials. 

    The Shadow Report emphasizes the importance of consumer participation in policy making and highlights the benefits of tobacco harm reduction alternatives, including vaping.  

    “Tobacco harm reduction products have been shown to serve as a method of smoking cessation and as an alternative for smokers who are unable or unwilling to quit smoking altogether,” said CAPHRA Executive Coordinator Nancy Loucas.

    “The WHO [World Health Organization] FCTC is meant to be an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. However, the current tobacco control measures have extensively promoted the abstinence-only approach, which has contributed to smokers’ inability to make informed choices about safer nicotine products,” said Loucas. 

    The CAPHRA’s Shadow Report calls for a more compassionate, people-centered, choice-focused and rights-based approach to tobacco control. By involving consumers in the development of healthcare policy and research, clinical practice guidelines and patient information material, the quality of health information and health outcomes for those using tobacco harm reduction alternatives can be improved, according to the organization.

  • JT Merges Dutch Subsidiaries

    JT Merges Dutch Subsidiaries

    Photo: Japan Tobacco

    Japan Tobacco merged its JT International Holdings (JTIH) and JT International Group Holdings (JTIGH) on Aug. 23, the company announced on its website.

    JTIGH, which was a pure holding company, will be dissolved, leaving JTIH as the surviving company.

    A wholly owned subsidiary of JT International Group Holding, JTIH is based in the Netherlands. Its chairman and managing director is Biljana Ivosevic.

    Japan Tobacco expects the impact of the merger between its consolidated subsidiaries to be minor.

  • Foreign Investors Bid for Stake in Eastern Co.

    Foreign Investors Bid for Stake in Eastern Co.

    Photo: Jose

    Foreign investors have submitted bids for a 30 percent stake in Egypt’s largest tobacco producer, Eastern Co., reports Ahram Online, citing an Aug. 22 statement from the Egyptian stock exchange.

    According to news reports, Japan Tobacco International is one of the investors considering the deal.

    Eastern’s majority shareholder, the state-owned Chemical Industries Holding Co. (CIHC), is reportedly studying the offers and conducting due diligence.

    In addition to CIHC, which has a 50.95 percent stake, Eastern’s current shareholders include the tobacco company’s employees’ union and South Africa’s Allan Grey Equity Fund, which each own 5.2 percent of the company. The remaining 9 percent is traded on the Egyptian exchange.

    In the first nine months of fiscal 2022–2023, Eastern reported a net profit of EGP5.29 billion ($171.22 million), up 24 percent over that recorded in the previous financial year.

    The potential sale is part of Egypt’s plans to offer stakes in 32 state-owned companies to strategic investors under the country’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund, which has offered a $3 billion loan.

    The nation is struggling with a $17 billion financial imbalance through 2026 and a local shortage of U.S. dollars.

    To date, the state assets sale program has generated around $2 billion.

  • Njoy Seeks U.S. Sales Ban of Juul Products

    Njoy Seeks U.S. Sales Ban of Juul Products

    Image: inimalGraphic

    Njoy has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban 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 U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 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.

  • CME to Invest in Packaging Automation

    CME to Invest in Packaging Automation

    Image: CME Automation Systems

    CME Automation Systems, a specialist in automated packing line solutions, has announced ambitious growth plans following significant backing from private equity. The investment enables CME to strengthen its offering to customers internationally in the pharmaceuticals, fast-moving consumer goods, cannabis and tobacco sectors.

    For 40 years, the CME brand has helped companies to improve efficiency and throughput through the use of automation in product handling for primary and secondary packaging systems. The new investor has identified the potential to build on CME’s expertise and reputation for innovation, especially given the company’s recent success in developing new solutions for growth markets such as cannabis and clinical trials.

    The investment comes from a specialist fund for small-sized and medium-sized U.K. enterprises and will be invested in a combination of resources, infrastructure, new product development and channels to market.

    In today’s hyper-competitive markets, the use of automation can deliver the competitive edge to balance productivity, profit and growth.

    Paul Knight, CEO, CME Automation Systems

    “Automation is critical for manufacturers who need to pack products at speed and at scale. In today’s hyper-competitive markets, the use of automation can deliver the competitive edge to balance productivity, profit and growth,” said CME Automation Systems CEO Paul Knight.

    “At CME, we provide the tools to help them achieve value through automation. As well as our core markets, we’re seeing significant interest from some of the world’s most rapidly growing sectors. So this investment is well timed to help us realize our business’s potential—and to help even more customers to meet their automation challenges.”

    The CME range offers standard and turnkey line solutions to support a variety of packing functions, including tax stamping, wrapping, collating, cartoning, filling and product handling. This is complemented by in-house capability for certain bespoke machinery design and build to help customers with specialist requirements.

    “CME has a proven track record but also huge future potential,” said CME Financial Director Scott Cullen. “We’re delighted to have a new investor for this ambitious growth plan, which will help to strengthen the CME brand internationally and grow sales in pharmaceuticals, FMCG, cannabis and tobacco.”

  • Zimbabwe Leaf Sales Touch $900 Million

    Zimbabwe Leaf Sales Touch $900 Million

    Anxious Masuka | Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe has earned nearly $900 million from tobacco sales this season, reports New Zimbabwe, citing a government statement dated Aug. 21.

    “Cabinet is pleased to advise that the total tobacco production now stands at a phenomenal 295,499,782 kg, valued at $895,114,791,” said Lands and Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka.

    “Of special note is the fact that 52 percent of the total production came from A1 and A2 farmers, confirming that the land reform program has been a success,” he said.

    In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe confiscated large-scale and mostly white-owned tobacco farms and redistributed them among landless peasants.

    The tobacco crop grew despite increased fertilizer prices caused by the war in Ukraine.  

    Tobacco in Zimbabwe has been on a rebound after production plummeted from a high of about 240 million kg  in 1998 to less than 50 million kg a decade later.

    Through the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, the southern African country has been working to make its tobacco industry more lucrative by manufacturing more cigarettes at home and limiting foreign funding of farmers.

  • New Zealand Sets Youth Vaping Regulations

    New Zealand Sets Youth Vaping Regulations

    Photo: Molly

    New Zealand has set new regulations to limit youth vaping, effective Sept. 21, reports the Xinhua News Agency.

    New specialist vape shops will be banned in locations within 300 meters of schools and Maori meeting places, according to Health Minister Ayesha Verrall.

    “Vapes will need child safety mechanisms, and names like ‘cotton candy’ and ‘strawberry jelly donut’ will be prohibited,” Verrall said. Only generic names like “orange” or “berry” that accurately describe the flavors will be allowed.

    The new regulations also set the maximum allowed nicotine level and require that all vaping devices have removable batteries.

    “We’re creating a future where tobacco products are no longer addictive, appealing or as readily available, and the same needs to apply to vaping,” Verrall said.

  • Industry Group Lobbies Against Flavor Ban

    Industry Group Lobbies Against Flavor Ban

    Photo: fotofabrika

    The Russian Union of Nicotine Industry Enterprises (Spini) has called on the government to exclude food flavorings and nicotine salts from the list of active ingredients and additives that are expected to be banned by the Ministry of Health for issues of nicotine dependence, reports ECigIntelligence.

    Representatives of Spini, which has more than 50 members, have sent a corresponding letter to the minister of finance asking for the exception to the ban.

  • NATO Appoints New Executive Director

    NATO Appoints New Executive Director

    Photo: RerF

    The U.S. National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) has named David Spross as the next executive director.

    With over 23 years working in the tobacco industry, most recently as the senior vice president of government relations and strategic engagement for Reynolds American, Spross brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the executive director role.

    “NATO is the leading voice for retailers of tobacco and nicotine products, and I am thrilled with the opportunity to lead this organization into the next generation of education, engagement and advocacy. As our industry continues to evolve, I look forward to keeping retailers front and center on these important developments,” said Spross.

    “We are excited for this next chapter at NATO under David’s leadership, and we remain incredibly grateful to Tom Briant for founding NATO 23 years ago and for his leadership growing the association to be the premier advocacy organization for tobacco retailers,” notes NATO board President Chris Beaulier.

    NATO’s mission is to enhance the business interests of retailers that sell tobacco and nicotine products, support the legislative and regulatory interest of its members and encourage the expansion of the retail tobacco and nicotine market in a responsible manner. NATO currently has 66,000 members.

    Spross will officially begin as executive director on Sept. 1, 2023.

  • Israel Updates Plan to Tackle Smoking

    Israel Updates Plan to Tackle Smoking

    Image: Vlad

    Israel’s health ministry has issued a request for public comments on an “action plan for all tobacco and smoking products,” reports The Jerusalem Post. The plan includes eventually raising the legal smoking age to 21 from 18.

    “The phenomenon of smoking is very worrying, and under my leadership, we are determined to promote measures to reduce it and increase awareness of the harm smoking causes,” said Health Minister Moshe Arbel. “This demands a complex and joint effort, and we are committed to implementing the policy in a variety of areas of prevention and encouraging quitting to promote public health and protect youngsters and adults alike from this serious damage to health.”

    “Given the dimensions of the spread of smoking, we have examined all possible measures and continue to act in many ways in order to raise awareness of the dangers of using these products,” said Moshe Bar Siman Tov, health ministry director-general. “We recommend adopting a strict policy and dramatic measures required by the necessity of reality, but it’s clear to all of us that the best way to stop smoking is not to start smoking.”

    The action plan includes decisions on the prohibition of flavors, giving the ministry powers to enforce the nicotine concentration limit, limiting the volume of the filling liquid allowed for import, marketing and sale, requiring graphic warnings on all tobacco and smoking products and visual uniformity to the smoking and vaping products, a ban on the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes, selling tobacco and smoking products in designated stores only and reducing the number of points of sale, raising the selling age to 21, giving authority to the ministry to enforce a ban on advertising on the internet, equalizing taxation on e-cigarettes and other tobacco products, and applying taxation to nicotine intended for nonmedical use.  

    The ministry’s statement said that “e-cigs are the gateway to smoking for young people who start experimenting with them at a young age; there is not strong evidence that e-cig use helps smokers kick the habit compared to the proven safety of other means of withdrawal, such as smoking cessation workshops, nicotine gums and patches and medical treatment. The scientific evidence on the health damage of e-cigs in the short[-term] and medium-term is known and described in the literature as affecting the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, trauma and burns, the developing brain in children and the creation of addiction.”