Category: News This Week

Wenche Rolfsen will be put forward by the nominating committee of Swedish Match for election as a new member of the company’s board. The election will take place during the annual general meeting on April 25.

Rolfsen is said to have broad experience in the development, marketing and sales of health care and consumer products.

She is currently the chairman of the boards of ApreaAB, a Swedish biotech company, and of Index Pharmaceuticals, a Swedish pharmaceutical company; vice chairman of Moberg Derma, a Swedish pharmaceutical company; and a board member of Stiftelsen Industrifonden, among other companies.

Rolfsen holds a Master of Science in Pharmacy and a Ph.D in pharmacology (1980) from the Pharmaceutical Faculty of Uppsala University. For a number of years she held an adjunct professorship in Pharmacology at the same university.

The UK based electronic cigarette company, E-Lites, has overturned an attempt by a European government to have electronic cigarettes classified as medical devices.

The Administrative Court in Estonia last week found in favour of Zandera Ltd, owners of the E-Lites brand, and against the Estonian State Agency of Medicines.

This decision comes at a time when the EU is proposing to classify electronic cigarettes as medicinal products under the revised EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).

It follows similar recent court decisions in Germany, the Netherlands and the US. All refused medicinal classification for electronic cigarettes.

“We are delighted common sense has prevailed,” said Michael Ryan, chairman of Zandera, in welcoming the decision in Estonia.

“E-Lites are not designed as a medicine; they’re designed as an alternative consumer product choice for smokers.

“We welcome the Estonian Court’s decision and we hope it will persuade other governments and regulatory bodies to review any similar proposals.”

The TPD, as drafted, would have the effect of removing from the market, pending medicinal authorization, virtually all electronic cigarettes, despite the fact they are proving a popular alternative for smokers and are increasingly widely recognised as being safer than cigarettes are.

“We are confident e-cigs are an exciting breakthrough and potentially ‘transforming’ product and we want to work with governments and regulators across Europe to agree the appropriate regulatory framework,” said Ryan.

“Public health experts are proclaiming the significant contribution to tobacco harm reduction e-cigs are already making and we desperately want that to continue.”

Charles Hamshaw-Thomas has been appointment director of legal and corporate affairs at E-Lites, the UK-based electronic cigarette company.

Hamshaw-Thomas has substantial senior executive experience as general counsel and corporate affairs director for some of the UK’s largest plc’s. He has extensive experience and knowledge of the political and regulatory environment surrounding smoking and tobacco. And, as principal of CSR Solutions, is recognised as one of the UK’s leading environmental litter campaigners.

“We are delighted to welcome Charles to our team,” said Adrian Everett, chief executive. “He is a highly experienced individual with a rich background in political, regulatory and legal affairs. We believe his appointment will further strengthen our team and reinforce E-Lites’ position as the UK’s leading e-cig brand.”

Meanwhile, Hamshaw-Thomas said he had watched closely in recent years the emergence of the electronic cigarette. “I believe it’s an exciting breakthrough and potentially ‘transforming’ product, and am correspondingly delighted to have been asked to join the team and help them establish E-Lites as one of the world’s leading brands in what is a rapidly expanding industry.”

The Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs is in favor of banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and requiring that graphic health warnings are included on cigarette packages, according to a story in the Baltic Daily.

The ministry last week declared its position in respect of the EU Commission’s proposed revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive.

It has forwarded its views to the working group of tobacco policy experts, which is due to report on its findings by tomorrow.

If accepted, the directive revisions would ban cigarettes with a characterizing flavor.

Ivi Normet, the ministry’s deputy secretary general for health affairs, said the only flavored cigarettes sold in Estonia were menthol products, which were very popular among women and young people.

Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health would like tobacco packs to have no brand information on them at all, according to an Esmerk Finnish News story quoting an unnamed newspaper report.

Such a proposal goes further than do the proposed revisions to the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive put forward by the Commission in December, and further even than the standardized tobacco package regulations imposed in Australia.

It is perhaps in line with a proposal put forward in Turkey some time ago whereby cigarette packs would have been identified at retail only by numbers that could be decoded by those with access to a list matching the numbers with the brand names.

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has called for the rejection of a proposal that would reintroduce subsidies coupled to tobacco production, according to a story in Europolitics.

The EU Parliament is due to vote on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform package this week.

“Pumping taxpayers’ money into a harmful industry once more is a step backwards for Europe and does nothing to support efforts to move farmers from producing one of Europe’s greatest killers to a more sustainable crop,” said Monika Kosinska, secretary-general of the EPHA.

At the end of January, the parliament’s Committee on Agriculture (AGRI) backed a proposal to remove any restrictions on products that could be supported by coupled subsidies when voting on their amendments to the Commission’s proposed direct payments regulation.

Coupled tobacco subsidies were scrapped in 2010.

Producers will now be hoping that the AGRI’s decision will be confirmed both by parliament and the Council of Ministers.

NewCo and its Indian partner, S.B. Impex, last week officially inaugurated a leaf facility close to Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

‘We are able to store up to four million kg and to pack hand strip and butted tobaccos of various Indian varieties,’ NewCo said in a press note.

The plant is located on the main road from Guntur to Chennai, about 30 km from Guntur, though the office and mail address remains in downtown Guntur.

It will afford the company better control of its tobacco purchases.

Lorillard’s board of directors has approved a new share repurchase program involving up to $500 million of the company’s outstanding common stock.

The program is expected to be completed this year.

“Today’s announcement that the board has authorized a new share repurchase program reinforces the company’s intent to efficiently manage our financial resources and our continued priority of returning cash to Lorillard shareholders,” said David H. Taylor, executive vice president, finance and planning, and CFO.

Purchases by the company under the new program may be made from time to time at prevailing market prices in open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, block purchase techniques or otherwise, as determined by the company’s management,’ Lorillard said in a note posed on its website.

‘This program does not obligate the company to acquire any particular amount of its common stock. The timing, frequency and amount of repurchase activity will depend on a variety of factors such as levels of cash generation from operations, cash requirements for investment in the company’s business, current stock price, market conditions and other factors. The share repurchase program may be suspended, modified or discontinued at any time and has no set expiration date.’

Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that the Minister of Finance had decided the terms of the secondary share offerings that it would be making in respect of the company’s common stock.

In all, 253,261,800 shares will be offered, made up of an international offering of 107,636,300 shares and a Japanese offering of 145,625,500 shares.

The offer price will be ¥2,949 per share; so the total value of the offering will be ¥746,869,048,200.

The subscription period for the Japanese offering is from March 12 to March 13, and the delivery date is March 15.

The European Ombudsman on Wednesday launched an investigation into the resignation in October of John Dalli as European commissioner for health and consumer affairs, according to a story by Dave Keating for the European Voice.

Dalli, who had had overall responsibility for the drafting of proposed revisions to the Tobacco Products Division that were eventually made public in December by his successor, resigned in October in circumstances that were examined by OLAF, the European Anti-fraud Office. Dalli strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

The Ombudsman has asked the European Commission to hand over all files relating to Dalli’s departure.

The investigation follows a complaint made earlier this year (see February 4 story: Ombudsman asked to rule on release of ‘Dalligate’ documents) by the transparency campaign group, Corporate Europe Observatory, which accused the Commission of selectively releasing documents relating to the case and failing to fulfil its obligations under EU transparency laws.

Members of the European Parliament, too, have complained that their requests for more information about the resignation have either gone unanswered or have not been answered to their satisfaction.

The Commission has three months to respond to the Ombudsman’s request.