Author: Staff Writer

  • Altria Certified as Great Place to Work

    Altria Certified as Great Place to Work

    Photo: Altria Group

    Altria Group has been certified a Great Place to Work by Great Place to Work, a global authority on workplace culture, employee experience and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue and increased innovation.

    “We are thrilled to be Great Place to Work-Certified and particularly pleased that more than 90 percent of employees who participated in the survey said that Altria is a great place to work,” said Charlie Whitaker, Altria’s senior vice president, chief human resources officer and chief compliance officer, in a statement. “Engaged, empowered and appreciated employees are critical to achieving our ten-year Vision to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a non-combustible future.”

    According to a survey fielded by Great Place to Work, of the employees who took the survey, 94 percent believe that Altria promotes flexibility, has ethical leadership, provides a good working environment, and supports its communities. 2020 was the first year that Altria participated in the Great Place to Work certification process.

    “We congratulate Altria on their Certification,” said Sarah Lewis-Kulin, vice president of best workplace list research at Great Place to Work. “Organizations that earn their employees’ trust create great workplace cultures that deliver outstanding business results.”

  • The Next Chapter

    The Next Chapter

    Photo: David Mark from Pixabay

    What might the new U.S. administration have in store for the vapor industry?

    By Patricia Kovacevic

    At the time of writing, the results of the U.S. elections are still contested by the presidential incumbent, a Republican, via various vote recount requests and litigation; however, it is a virtual certainty that the U.S. will have a new president, representing the Democratic Party, as of Jan. 20, 2021.

    The heads of departments, including the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), are appointed by the president, subject to confirmation by the Senate, and typically change with the administration. In turn, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is the agency within the HHS with primary jurisdiction over tobacco products (including electronic nicotine-delivery systems, or ENDS) as well as drugs, foods and other products, will be led in the new administration by a new commissioner.

    Given the Covid-19 crisis, the new president will be under immense pressure to appoint a new FDA commissioner immediately. Interestingly and somewhat surprisingly, a former FDA commissioner, David Kessler, was recently named co-chair of the new administration’s Covid-19 task force, although Kessler resigned his commissioner role in November 1996 amid controversy for overbilling his travel expenses during his tenure.

    Also during Kessler’s tenure, the FDA attempted to regulate tobacco products as “delivery devices for the drug nicotine” to bring tobacco products under FDA jurisdiction. Tobacco companies challenged the rules all the way to the Supreme Court and won (FDA v. Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp.). The Supreme Court ruled that “Congress has clearly precluded the FDA from asserting jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products. Such authority is inconsistent with the intent that Congress has expressed in the FDCA’s [Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act] overall regulatory scheme and in the tobacco-specific legislation that it has enacted subsequent to the FDCA. In light of this clear intent, the FDA’s assertion of jurisdiction is impermissible.”

    Kessler’s wish to see tobacco regulated by the FDA was eventually granted by Congress in June 2009 through the bipartisan passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. While some speculate that Kessler may be on the short list for HHS commissioner, it is likely that the administration will bring forward new faces. Still, Kessler’s life-long anti-tobacco stance and past working relationship with the current head of the Center for Tobacco Products might give an indication of the increased scrutiny of the tobacco sector in the years to come.

    The ENDS industry status quo, from a legislation point of view, while far from ideal, is by now familiar to the ENDS industry. The recent premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) filing deadline has come and gone, and, as expected, we have not seen a flurry of warning letters post-September 2020 ordering certain vapor manufacturers to stop selling their products because they did not submit a PMTA.

    The FDA is, however, expected to start enforcing this legislation sooner or later. For any dramatic change to occur, the governing legislation, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, would have to be amended, which is not likely to be top of the list for the upcoming Congress given the priorities the new administration announced during the election campaign. Still, the House of Representatives, one of the chambers of the U.S. legislature, remains dominated by the Democrats, the same party whose representatives initiated several tobacco-related bills and called for confrontational hearings on vapor products. The most recent one, in February 2020, was relatively tame compared with the tone of the July 2019 Juul hearing and even with the June 2014 Senate hearing. 

    Senate races in Georgia will require runoff elections on Jan. 5, 2021. If Democrats gain both Senate seats in Georgia in January, there would be a 50-50 tie in the Senate, and the vice president would have the tie-breaking vote in case the Senate is deadlocked on a piece of legislation. When the House, Senate and White House are controlled by the same party, the chances of the current administration to pass laws in support of its agenda are greatly increased, though divisions exist within each party, and surprises always happen. Furthermore, 34 out of the 100 Senate seats are up for regular election in two years as well as all 435 House seats; these will be a trying two years for Americans in an economic crisis, and the public sentiment can swing in the other direction. Thus, the new president may have only two years, if even that long, to pass a flurry of laws, and there may be more urgent matters than revisiting the Tobacco Control Act, which, for better or for worse, has worked so far.

    The FDA already has broad powers to expand requirements and restrictions involving ENDS products, including the authority to impose product standards through notice-and-comment rulemaking. Ingredient caps and bans are among the standards the FDA has the authority to promulgate via regulation.

    The latest unified agenda of regulatory and deregulatory actions

    As of spring 2020, active regulatory actions include four potential future regulatory actions by the FDA, rolled over from previous agendas, with no clear deadline for publication of a proposed rule:

    • Requirements for Tobacco Product Manufacturing Practice (colloquially referred to as “Good Manufacturing Practices”)
    • Tobacco Product Standard for Characterizing Flavors in Cigars (follow-up to the 2018 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking); this is unlikely to move into the final rule stage on account of recent courtroom successes by the cigar industry.
    • Modified-risk tobacco product applications; this future proposed rule would establish content and format requirements to ensure that modified-risk tobacco product applications contain sufficient information for the FDA to determine whether it should permit the marketing of a modified-risk tobacco product. Additionally, the proposed rule would set forth the basic procedures for modified-risk tobacco product application review and require applicants receiving authorization to market a modified-risk tobacco product to establish and maintain records, conduct post-market surveillance and studies, and submit annual reports to the FDA.
    • Premarket tobacco product applications and recordkeeping requirements, a 2019 proposed rule, which would have as a next step at some point in the future, likely in 2020, a final rule.

    Notably, ingredient bans and nicotine caps are not on the regulatory agenda. A first step toward an ingredient ban would likely be an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), although the FDA can in theory skip this step and move directly to a proposed rule, open a docket for comment, collect comments and consider whether it has sufficient information to finalize the rule. Given the complexity of the issue and the current research focusing on flavor ingredients in ENDS, if the FDA determines that an exploration of a flavor ban is desirable, the FDA will probably go through the ANPRM step.

    One would have to wonder, though, why engage in rulemaking when the FDA already reviews all relevant information about every ENDS product on the U.S. market, present and future, through the PMTA process—thus allowing the agency to make a case-by-case determination—and the FDA will no doubt pay considerable attention to certain flavored products. In the author’s personal opinion, the PMTA process is the FDA’s preferred avenue to make decisions on individual products rather than issuing rules on product categories, which can also be challenged—and the current Supreme Court might entertain challenges to the FDA’s behavior if it came to it down the road.

    Meanwhile, the majority of states by number still lean conservative, which likely means fewer developments in taxation, some scrutiny of ENDS but not necessary priority placed on shrinking the lawful ENDS market as there is no immediately quantifiable health benefit from doing so, and many potential harms. Of note are the California litigation and the potential referendum in California to overturn SB 793 (the flavor ban legislation). By the time this you read this article, we should know whether the bill opponents succeeded at collecting the necessary signatures to place the referendum on the November 2022 California elections ballot and suspend the application of the California flavor ban until then and pending the referendum’s outcome.

    The question we must also ask, given the political, public health and economic crisis context is whether ENDS are a threat to anyone and why any administration would, at this juncture, prioritize overregulating a harm reduction asset over the important, systemic changes Americans expect from the administration and drastically mitigating the Covid impact. The industry is likely to consolidate and survive.

    A global legal and compliance nicotine industry expert, Patricia I. Kovacevic has experience that includes general counsel and chief compliance officer roles at Nicopure Labs as well as leading senior legal and regulatory positions at Philip Morris International and Lorillard. Kovacevic served on the board of directors of the Vapor Technology Association and on the advisory board of the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum. She is the founder of RegulationStrategy, a global legal and compliance FDA-regulated industry consultancy.
  • Known Unknowns

    Known Unknowns

    Andrey Popov | Dreamtime

    The case for realistic optimism in the wake of America’s recent election

    By Chris Greer

    I always admired Donald Rumsfeld’s turn of an opaque phrase. As America’s former secretary of defense memorably explained in a 2002 news briefing on the U.S. invasion of Iraq, crystal ball gazing into the future is nothing if not an embrace of the mist and fog. However, anticipating what may come is not just an amusement, it can be a valuable strategic planning tool during a change of U.S. presidential administrations.

    I am often asked to provide my opinion on picks, replacements and likely policy directions. As president of TMA, I cannot provide an opinion. TMA has, for more than a century, striven to be an unbiased convener and place of understanding for those engaged in the complexities of tobacco and nicotine. So why should you continue to read after I just told you that you are not getting an opinion on leadership picks and policies?

    I think the perspective offered by a more dispassionate observer is warranted and useful to prepare for January’s changes. There are areas we can be realistically optimistic about, and it is more than an aphorism that what comes next is largely a “known unknown.” That is especially true when we consider the natural starting point of conversations like these: comparing the outgoing administration to what we think will happen during the new one.

    A realistic perspective

    I will give you one opinion: I believe few people in the tobacco and nicotine industry or harm/risk reduction stakeholder community consider the last four years an uninterrupted halcyon summer. If you do not share my opinion, then we can all at least agree they were eventful and highly consequential. Just naming a few events off the top of my head reveals:

    • The early but highly prominent miscommunications on e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI)
    • Policy by tweet
    • No exemptions for premium cigars
    • A ban on most mass market flavored electronic nicotine-delivery system (ENDS) sales
    • Uncertain U.S.-China and U.S.-EU trade conditions for leaf and ENDS products
    • A global pandemic and its economic and social consequences
    • An order by a Maryland federal judge that moved forward, by several years to September 2020, due dates for provisional substantial equivalence and premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submissions for deemed products
    • An order from a Massachusetts federal court directing a rule on cigarette graphic health warnings be promulgated by March 2020

    I ask you, is the reality of the last four years really all that different or better than the preceding eight years? Before you answer, consider my list of highlights and where we find ourselves now: farmers struggling, preliminary consumption data indicating no 2020 decline in cigarette consumption, increasing survey evidence showing more people believe any product containing nicotine is no better than a combustible cigarette, a once-in-a-century global pandemic and resulting economic conditions not seen since the Great Depression.

    Realistically, despite the overall business-friendly orientation of many Trump policies, what occurred over the last four years was profoundly turbulent and challenging to many aspects of tobacco and nicotine and harm/risk reduction efforts. Not feeling so cheery? Sorry, that was not my intention. But this is the reality we face and, therefore, the starting point for your comparison against what might happen under a Biden administration.

     

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    Optimism

    Now for the optimism. Provisional submissions for deemed products, including the entire ENDS category, are at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The proverbial elephant left the room. Seems bleak to lead the optimism section with completion of a regulatory submission that only starts an entirely untested process. But it was a millstone around the industry’s neck. And it was an exposed flank that lead to attacks from public health groups against the FDA. What the FDA does with these submissions will be a point of contention in 2021, but it would have been no matter when the submissions ended up being due.

    Some of the actions on my list of events from the last four years were the result of trends picked up in the National Youth Tobacco Survey and rising anecdotal evidence of an unwelcome rise in youth using ENDS products. Thankfully, 2020’s survey showed 2 million fewer teenagers falling into the survey’s “user” category than in 2019. Optimists may believe that the tide is turning on youth vape issues. There is a lot to be optimistic about here: Fewer kids taking up vapor products is good for everyone. This trend may absorb a lot of the electricity generated over the last few years. Quieter contemplation may be good for all stakeholders.

    The FDA was also busy making history with several breakthrough authorizations. These include the first modified-risk marketing order for Swedish Match’s General snus and the first modified exposure order for Philip Morris International’s (PMI) IQOS and Marlboro Heat Sticks. This is a big deal. They are not only the first instances of tobacco products that can legally claim users will experience a reduced risk or exposure to smoking-related illness (with exclusive use), but they open the pathway to a number of other products that sit on the lower end of the risk spectrum. Most encouragingly, this was done without hyperbole, based on evidence, following a rigorous but clear(ish) process, in a climate of open hostility toward nicotine-containing products, and it is repeatable for other products pending before the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).

    Lastly, I am writing at the end of 2020, the year best described as a dumpster fire. I feel good that the year is ending, and we have not endured anything else. Honestly, I would not be surprised if we are attacked by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man or wake up to aliens landing on the National Mall. There is a vaccine or three on the horizon. I am optimistic 2020 will end, and we will all be glad that it never again darkens our doors.

    Knowns and unknowns: Knowing the difference

    We know things will change. Focus will shift, emphasis will alight on other priorities, political appointments in federal public health agencies will be filled by new people. All of this will occur in the charged atmosphere of a global pandemic, a highly fractured political environment and during an economic crisis.

    The biggest unknown is the capacity of the Biden administration to deal with issues not related to the big four: ending the pandemic; addressing the pandemic’s economic fallout; addressing the erosion of faith in the basics of the American political system; and finding the political capital to execute the new administration’s core economic agenda. Each one of these could easily consume all the new administration’s time, energy and goodwill.

    It would be reasonable to assume that, regardless of the outcome of Georgia’s January runoff election, the partisan disfunction and the math of Congressional majorities that frustrated much of the Trump legislative agenda after the 2018 mid-terms will persist into the Biden administration. Therefore, a Biden legislative agenda will be difficult to achieve, and the administration will likely be more active on the administrative and regulatory front, especially for noncore issues.

    That leaves the tobacco, nicotine and harm reduction agenda in an exposed position, especially given the powers in the vast and unexplored space of product standards. It is conceivable that an active FDA commissioner would implement a more expansive regulatory agenda. However, we must consider the reality of the situation confronting the Biden health policy team.

    We are not facing the same level of pressure or attention. Youth ENDS use is trending down. The CTP is quite busy with PMTA submissions. Pathways for modified-risk products, with very robust post-market surveillance, are now functioning and have a pipeline of pending applications. And most curiously, EVALI now languishes in that part of the internet where forgotten news and Paris Hilton reside.

    It is a fact that most of the people on the list for responsible positions within the Biden health team have track records in prior offices, or have advanced public positions, that are considered challenging for many harm reductionists and certainly for the industry itself. However, as we have all come to know, facts and truth are different. Truth, while composed in part of facts, is also made of other things like circumstances, possibility, achievability, consequences and priorities. The truth is, we simply do not know what will happen. However, it is equally truthful to point out that the overall instability of the country and an already full plate of the industry’s primary regulator suggests the frying pans remain filled with a lot of uncooked fish.  

    So, what is my point? Well, we can surmise that tobacco, nicotine and harm reduction will not be a core focus of the Biden administration. Statutory action is unlikely, bouncing the action back to the regulatory sphere. However, the responsible regulatory agencies are also the ones hopefully closing out the pandemic. Some of the key pressure points that emerged during the Trump administration are shrinking, and the CTP has a few items already in its “In” box. What people have done or said in the past is instructive but not determinate for what will occur in the future. Most importantly, and it cannot be understated, one of the core principals of U.S. public health regulation is a basis in evidence and the rule of law.

    On this last point, I will veer into opinion once again because my position affords me the ability to compare regulatory structures around the world. The people I meet in responsible federal regulatory positions are thoughtful and dedicated. They always strike me as committed to their mission of going where the science and evidence takes them, upholding the rule of law and taking action in the best interests of the American people—and that includes adult Americans who smoke or are choosing to transition away from smoking using reduced-risk products. Likewise, the industry and large parts of the stakeholder community are similarly dedicated to these principals.

    I do look with realistic optimism at the next four years under President Biden. I think we will experience a recovery from the social and economic dislocation caused by Covid-19, and that includes struggling segments of tobacco and nicotine like retailers, small manufacturers, distributors and growers. I trust that our nation can begin to recover and reconcile from the caustic divisiveness that mars our conversations of late. And I hope we can see that fellow Americans are people who may hold different views but are not the enemy incarnate.

    The reality of 2021 is much like the reality of 2018–2020: It’s mostly unknown. It is highly charged and divided. It is uncertain and dynamic in ways both positive and negative. It also holds opportunities for the stakeholder community to engage constructively with our regulators as we examine the issue of nicotine and harm reduction. With everyone at the table, dedicated to similar purposes, all stakeholders can advance policies and enact programs that continue to nurture the seeds planted over the last four years.

    I invite all stakeholders to use forums like TMA for that purpose. We stand ready to assist the community to turn uncertainty into positive action. Change is unavoidable; the only choice we have is to be shaped by it or take a shot at being the sculptor.

    Chris Greer is the president and CEO of TMA. Before joining TMA, he was director of corporate affairs and communications at JTI USA. He joined the tobacco and nicotine community from telecommunications and has spent his career in government and regulatory affairs, compliance, and corporate communications. Founded in 1915, TMA is a member-driven organization dedicated to convening all stakeholders in open, welcoming forums and providing unbiased information and understanding.
  • KT&G Recognized for Intellectual Property

    KT&G Recognized for Intellectual Property

    KT&G was selected as the “Intellectual Property Management Enterprise of the Year” at the 2020 KINPA annual conference hosted by the Korea Intellectual Property Association. The photo features Kim Jong-yeol, Head of the Future Technology Research Institute at the KT&G R&D headquarters. (Photo: KT&G)

    KT&G received the Commissioner Award from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) at the Intellectual Property Management Enterprise of the Year ceremony organized by the KIPO and the Korea Intellectual Property Association (KINPA) on Dec. 8.

    The award ceremony was hosted to identify enterprises that contributed to the development of national industries by strengthening the capacity of intellectual properties at enterprises and reflecting them in their management activities. KT&G has reportedly received excellent reviews in the creation of intellectual property and rights, including patents, as well as intellectual property management.

    Between 2016 and 2019, KT&G increased its number of patent applications from 43 to 431.

    “Through this award, KT&G’s technology was recognized once again since receiving the prime minister’s citation on the Day of Invention in June,” said Chi-beom Oh, head of KT&G’s R&D division, in a statement. “We will continue to lead the global tobacco market by focusing our competencies on developing our own technologies and making patent applications.”

  • Tobacco Firms Urged to Submit Health Warnings

    Tobacco Firms Urged to Submit Health Warnings

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is encouraging tobacco companies to submit their plans for compliance with the agency’s upcoming graphic health warning requirements as soon as possible, and in any event by March 16, 2021.

    Following two postponements, the effective date for graphic health warnings is now Jan. 14, 22.

    The FDA’s final rule, “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements,” establishes new required cigarette health warnings for cigarette packages and advertisements. Each required warning, comprising a textual warning statement and its accompanying color graphic, must be accurately reproduced as shown in the materials contained in “Required Cigarette Health Warnings, 2020.”

    The FDA says it intends to revise its relevant guidance documents related to the rule with the new effective date.

    Tobacco companies may contact CTP with questions about the effective date.

    The graphic health warning requirements had originally been scheduled to take effect on June 18, 2021. Due the Covid-19 pandemic, they were postponed to Oct. 16, 2021.

    In November, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Liggett Group and ITG Brands, along with cigarette retailers, asked for further postponement. The companies argued they would suffer irreparable harm if they were forced to spend millions of dollars to comply with a rule that might soon be invalidated.

    “These expenditures of resources for the purpose of meeting the rule’s requirements constitute irreparable harm because plaintiffs cannot recover money damages should the rule and/or the graphic-warning requirement in the Tobacco Control Act be invalidated,” the companies stated.

    On Dec. 2, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted their request and postponed the effective date by an additional 90 days.

     

  • BAT Publishes First Human Rights Report

    BAT Publishes First Human Rights Report

    Image: BAT

    British American Tobacco (BAT) has become the first tobacco company to publish a Human Rights Report. The report coincides with U.N. Human Rights Day and highlights the company’s commitment and actions to protect human rights across its global business and supply chain. BAT has also announced a commitment to aim for zero child labor in its agricultural supply chain by 2025.

    Jack Bowles

    “We recognize that forced labor is a serious risk in agricultural supply chains, and I am proud that we had zero reported cases of forced labor in 2019,” said Jack Bowles, BAT CEO, in a statement. “We adopt a zero-tolerance approach to forced labor whilst having a clear commitment to aim for our tobacco supply chain to also be free of child labor by 2025.”

    BAT’s Human Rights Report is aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles Reporting Framework. The report highlights the measures BAT takes to promote, uphold and protect human rights across its supply chain, which includes 90,000 directly contracted farmers. The report also features case studies to showcase partnerships and activities aimed at improving farmer livelihoods and securing the long-term sustainability of rural communities.

    This year’s U.N. Human Rights Day focuses on the global impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on human rights. BAT’s report highlights many of the initiatives the company has adopted to address the pandemic, including developing a potential Covid-19 vaccine candidate; producing and distributing protective equipment and sanitizer; providing financial support to suppliers where required; and ensuring access to Covid-19-secure workplaces for workers throughout the supply chain.

     

  • Study: ‘Tobacco-21’ Working as Intended

    Study: ‘Tobacco-21’ Working as Intended

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Sales of cigarette brands disproportionally consumed by young people have fallen in jurisdictions that raised the minimum purchase age to 21, according to new research published in Tobacco Control.

    “Tobacco 21” (T21) policies proliferated at state and local levels across the United States before a federal policy was adopted in late 2019. The authors of the study examined demographic patterns of cigarette brand purchasing to evaluate the effectiveness of the laws.

    To capture the effect of T21 implementation on cigarette sales, they used universal product code-level data from Nielsen Scantrack data covering January 2015 to October 2019.

    “Sales of disproportionately young brands declined after T21 implementation,” the researchers wrote in an abstract of their study. “T21 policy implementation dates fit disproportionately young brand sales trends better than 99 percent of adjusted randomized placebo models. T21 implementation fit disproportionately old brand sales trends better than just 1 percent of adjusted randomized placebo models.”

     

  • Apartment Smoking Ban Sent Back to Committee

    Apartment Smoking Ban Sent Back to Committee

    Photo: ninjason from Pixabay

    San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected a proposed ban on smoking or vaping tobacco in apartments that it voted for just last week, reports The San Francisco Examiner.

    The board must approve legislation in two separate votes. Typically, the second vote is perfunctory.

    Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who initially supported the ban, said that he heard from many long-term tenants on fixed income raising concerns about the proposal since his vote and he was “remarkably moved in the last week by what I have heard from them.”

    Critics expressed concern about the impacts the measure could have on longstanding renters, including fines of up to $1,000 per day and the potential for tenant harassment. The proposal does say a violation could not be grounds for an eviction.

    “I really am fearful that the unintended impacts could cause more harm to long term tenants in my district and other districts,” Peskin said. “I do want to address the harm of secondhand smoke in multi-unit residential buildings, but I think there are better ways to address this.”

    Approval of the legislation, which controversially exempted marijuana smoking, would have made San Francisco the largest city in the United States to adopt a smoking ban in multi-unit buildings.

    Board President Norman Yee’s said he was disappointed by the failure of the measure to pass in the second vote.

    “Today’s vote failed to prioritize the health of our most vulnerable community members,” Yee said. “It is completely backwards that we would defend the rights of people to smoke in their own homes over the rights of others to breathe safely.”

  • BAT Performing Despite Uncertain Environment

    BAT Performing Despite Uncertain Environment

    Photo: Gabriel Stabinger | BAT

    Maintaining its 2020 guidance, British American Tobacco said it expects constant currency adjusted revenue growth to be at the high end of the 1-3 percent range this year.

    Jack Bowles

    “We are growing our ‘new category’ business as fast as possible and we are proud to now have around 13 million non-combustible product consumers,” said BAT CEO Jack Bowles in a trading update. “We are continuing to increase investment in our three new categories of potentially reduced risk cigarette alternatives, capitalizing on our momentum, while continuing to deliver on our financial commitments.”

    Bowles said BAT remains committed to it 2025 new category revenue ambition of £5 billion ($6.73 billion). “While the environment remains uncertain, due to the continuing challenges of Covid-19, the business is performing strongly,” he said.

    According to BAT, Vuse is now the fastest growing international vapor brand, growing at 7 percentage points versus fiscal year 2019 to a 26 percent value share in the year to September in the world’s top-5 vapor markets.

    BAT’s Glo tobacco heating device has reached a 5.9 percent volume share of total nicotine in Japan.

    Meanwhile, the Velo and Lyft modern oral brands have consolidated their leadership in many international markets. In the U.S., BAT boosted its modern oral portfolio with the acquisition of Dryft, expanding the product range from four stock-keeping units to 28, with representation in the above 6mg segment and additional flavors.

    “Reducing the health impact of our business through providing a range of enjoyable and less risky products is the greatest contribution we can make to society,” said Bowles. “We continue to be clear that combustible cigarettes pose serious health risks, and the only way to avoid these risks is not to start or to quit. BAT encourages those who would otherwise continue to smoke to switch completely to scientifically substantiated reduced risk alternatives.”

  • Altria Earns Double ‘A’ for Climate And Water

    Altria Earns Double ‘A’ for Climate And Water

    Photo: Altria Group

    Altria Group has been awarded a double ‘A’ rating for tackling climate change and protecting water security by CDP, a nonprofit that runs a global disclosure system on managing environmental impact. Altria ranks among the 1 percent of companies that achieved a double ‘A’ out of 5,800-plus businesses scored by CDP in 2020.

    “We recognize the critical importance of addressing environmental challenges and have set a high bar for ourselves,” said Jennifer Hunter, senior vice president of corporate citizenship, in a statement. “In pursuit of our 10-year vision, we established ambitious goals to address climate change and water security, like achieving 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030, 100 percent water neutrality annually and aligning our business with the most ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”

    Earlier this year, Altria announced that its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets were approved for the first time by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The Scope 1 and Scope 2 target covering greenhouse gas emissions from Altria’s operations is consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal that the latest climate science says is needed to prevent the most damaging effects of climate change. The Scope 3 target meets the criteria for ambitious value chain goals and current best practice.

    CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. A detailed and independent methodology is used, allocating a score of A to D- based on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets. Those that don’t disclose or provided insufficient information are marked with an F.

    CDP also recognized Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Brands for their environmental commitments.