Author: Staff Writer

Philip Morris International said yesterday that its affiliate, Philip Morris Investments, had acquired 11,348,266 common shares of Medicago for C$13,163,989.

Following this transaction, PM Investments holds 109,957,066 common shares in Medicago, representing 40 percent of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Medicago.

The other 164,935,599 common shares of Medicago, representing 60 percent of the total, are owned by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation and one of its subsidiaries.

PM Investments’ most recent acquisition of Medicago shares was said to have been made for investment purposes.

A study has concluded that Hong Kong should set itself the goal of a total ban on tobacco sales before 2022, according to a Tobacco Control report.

A telephone survey was conducted among 1,537 randomly-selected residents in 2012 to assess their support for a total ban on tobacco sales, usage and possession.

Backers of “some form of a total ban” on tobacco were said to have included 75.3 percent of the never smokers, 63.9 percent of the ex-smokers and 48.9 percent of current smokers.

A total ban on tobacco sales was the most popular option among the three groups, with 64.8 percent of all respondents supporting a ban within 10 years.

Current smoking and higher educational attainment were associated with less support for a total ban on tobacco sales.

Among current smokers, having quit intentions and attempts to quit were associated with support for a total ban.

The study, which was first published online yesterday, was carried out by researchers at the School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong; the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, US; and the School of Nursing, University of Hong Kong.

An abstract is available at http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/09/17/tobaccocontrol-2013-051092.abstract.html?papetoc.

The Taiwan Medical Alliance for the Control of Tobacco has called on the government to follow the lead of the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative and set an agenda gradually to end tobacco use, according to a story by Alison Hsiao for the Taipei Times.

Ending tobacco use was the theme of this year’s International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st century, at which anti-tobacco activists suggested setting target dates for the reduction of tobacco use to less than 5 percent of the population.

Thailand’s Public Health Ministry yesterday filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court asking that the ministry be allowed to require larger health warnings on cigarette packs, according to a story in The Nation.

Philip Morris Thailand took legal action against the ministry in June, asking the Administrative Court to invalidate the ministry’s notification that would have required tobacco manufactures to increase the size of graphic health warnings from 55 percent to 85 percent of the front and back of cigarette packs.

Toward the end of August, the Administrative Court suspended the ministry’s plan.

Disease Control Department Deputy Chief Dr. Nopporn Cheanklin said the ministry’s appeal asked the court to force cigarette makers to use, from Oct. 2, 10 warning graphics enlarged so that they covered “up to 85 percent of the packaging surface.”

Public Health Minister Pradit Sintavanarong said at least nine cigarette makers had complied with the ministerial announcement and changed the warning graphics. Two of them had already shipped their products to Thailand.

Forest, the Institute of Economic Affairs and The Free Society are due to co-host three back-to-back events on the fringe of the Conservative Party Conference.

The three events, which together will create The Liberty Lounge, will be held at the Comedy Store, Manchester, U.K., on Sept. 30.

The first event, at 6 p.m., is A Beer and a Fag with Farage.

“Speaking on [BBC] Radio 4’s Today programme before the local elections in May, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he wanted to amend the smoking ban and allow separate designated smoking rooms, the same policy advocated by Forest’s Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign,” Forest explained in a press note. “Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston subsequently warned the Tories against trying to outflank UKIP as the party of ‘booze and fags.’ Join us in the main auditorium as Mark Littlewood, director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), interviews the UKIP leader on lifestyle freedoms such as smoking, eating and drinking and the EU’s proposed Tobacco Products Directive.”

The second event, at 7:30 p.m., is the Liberty Lounge Drinks Reception, where the hosts will be Littlewood and Simon Clark, director of Forest.

“There may be one or two very short speeches on issues such as plain packaging of tobacco and minimum pricing of alcohol,” warned Forest. “But, don’t worry, there’s no minimum pricing in operation here. For the duration of the reception a selection of beer and wine is absolutely FREE!”

The third event, Stand Up For Liberty, is due to start at 8:30 p.m.

‘Two years ago in ManchesterForest hosted our first stand up comedy event,’ Forest said. ‘Afterwards former Sutton councillor Paul Scully tweeted, “Forest event at the Comedy Store is possibly the best ever in my 14 years at conference”. Via email someone else commented, “By a very substantial margin, the best fringe event of the last 10 years”.

‘This year we are returning with another fabulous line-up including the brilliant Australian comedian Steve Hughes whose routines on “secondary smoke” and health and safety are among the best in the business…’

Further information on any of these events can be obtained by emailing: events@forestonline.org.

With a federal government-funded trial about to test the viability of electronic cigarettes as a safer, permanent replacement for tobacco, Australia could become the first major nation to outlaw smoking completely, according to a story by Eamonn Duff for the Sydney Morning Herald.

As part of its anti-smoking reform agenda, the previous Labor government committed more than $1 million to a pioneering study that, by 2015, will determine whether e-cigarettes could be used to phase out traditional cigarettes altogether.

But it is uncertain whether the new coalition government will prove equally committed to the policy.

Coral Gartner, who is due shortly to lead a trial of 1,600 smokers at the University of Queensland’s centre for clinical research, said that electronic cigarettes had the potential to be beneficial to public health if they were used to replace completely traditional cigarettes.

“It would be a shame not to explore how they could be used to maximize public health while trying to minimize potential unwanted effects such as making smoking appear glamorous,” Gartner added.

Imperial Tobacco is currently building at its Kiev factory what is due to become Ukraine’s tallest, fully automated, high-bay warehouse.

The new facility is being built to improve the efficiency of the company’s supply chain.

When completed, the 34-meter-high building will provide space for more than 16,000 pallets. It will have the capacity to store the production equivalent of up to 40 billion cigarettes and materials.

So far, the concrete foundations have been laid and a fire-resistant wall put in place between the warehouse and a new 4,000-square-meter handling area, which will have eight loading bays.

Teams from Imperial’s Group Supply Chain and Group Manufacturing are said to have worked closely on the project to ensure a fully integrated approach from factory floor to logistics.

“This new warehouse and associated handling area will bring supply chain services and storage currently outsourced back under our control,” said Edgar Gerke, HBW [high-bay warehouse] Kiev program manager.

“The state-of-the-art systems planned in Kiev have been developed to become the standard for other sites across the group.

“Ultimately this project will help ensure increased availability of our products to customers in the region.”

Russia’s media watchdog has threatened to block Facebook in Russia if an investigation confirms the social-media company featured advertisements for certain smoking blends, according to an RT TV/TV Novosti story quoting Itar-Tass.

The threat apparently came from the country’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media.

“If we find violations in the advertising law, then we will open up an investigation,” the deputy head of the media watchdog, Andrey Kashevarov, was quoted as saying.

“In case narcotics are involved, then we will forward all the materials to the Federal Service for Drug Control.”

The blends were said to have been marketed under trade names including AM-HI-CO, Dream, Spice (Gold, Diamond), Zoom, Ex-ses and Yucatan Fire.

[They] “have been declared to contain Salvia divinorum, Hawaiian Wood Rose and Blue Lotus, and are prohibited from sale,” the story said.

“The substances have been found to have ‘psychotropic, narcotic effects, contain poisonous components and represent potential threat for humans.’”

“They are not marijuana, but can have a similar effect.”

Altria yesterday revised its guidance for 2013 full-year reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) from a range of $2.51 to $2.56 to a range of $2.57 to $2.62.

“The revised guidance reflects the impact of the Sept. 11, 2013, decision by the arbitration panel presiding over the nonparticipating manufacturer adjustment (NPM Adjustment) dispute for 2003 that six out of 15 states failed to diligently enforce laws that require escrow payments from the cigarette manufacturers that have not signed the Master Settlement Agreement (Arbitration Panel Decision),” the company said in a note posted on its website.

“As a result of the Arbitration Panel Decision, Philip Morris USA Inc. … expects to receive a credit of approximately $145 million, plus interest, against its 2014 Master Settlement Agreement payment obligations and to record an increase of approximately $145 million in its reported pretax earnings for the third quarter of 2013.

“Additionally, the revised guidance reflects the reversal of tax accruals no longer required.”

Meanwhile, Altria reaffirmed its guidance for 2013 full-year adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of $2.36 to $2.41, representing a growth rate of 7 percent to 9 percent from an adjusted diluted EPS base of $2.21 per share in 2012.

The success that tobacco control strategies have delivered in the West is starting to become something of a problem.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday that effective tobacco control measures and changing social norms had seen smoking prevalence drop by 50 percent or more in wealthy countries.

Giving the keynote address for the International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century: The Endgame for Tobacco, Chan said that in these countries, tobacco use was increasingly concentrated in sectors of society with lower levels of education, income and engagement in the political process.

“In other words, the very success of tobacco control has reduced the visibility of smoking as a problem demanding urgent attention,” she said.

“In some cases, obesity is now the most visible epidemic that needs to be stopped.

“Success is always good, but must not be allowed to conceal the fact that the job of tobacco control is far from done.”

The conference was held in New Delhi, India.