Smokeless tobacco products fall victim partly to US’ tobacco control act

Star Scientific said yesterday that it was getting out of the smokeless tobacco business because of low sales and financial losses, the regulatory environment in the US, and the fact that its association with tobacco was making it difficult for it to interest research centers in undertaking clinical research into its pharmaceutical products.

According to a story by Richard Craver for the Winston-Salem Journal, the company will concentrate on its pharmaceutical business, which is focused on dietary supplements and cosmetic products under the brand name Anatabloc.

But it will try to find licensing opportunities for its dissolvable tobacco products, including Ariva BDL and Stonewall BDL, and its StarCured tobacco-curing process.

Star’s board of directors said it was “motivated to take this action in light of continued losses and low sales for our dissolvable tobacco products over the last several years.”

But it said also that restrictions under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which went into effect in 2009, had prohibited the company from making statements about the comparative safety of various types of tobacco products.

And it added that the dissolvable tobacco business had had ‘a negative impact on our ability to interest leading scientific and medical research centers in undertaking clinical research related to our anatabine compound in managing excessive inflammation’.

The full story is at: http://www.journalnow.com/business/business_news/national_international/article_890daa3a-48b2-11e2-93e3-0019bb30f31a.html.