Category: News This Week

Flavored Vaping Ban Begins Tomorrow

A ban on advertising e-cigarettes in Ukraine, including heated-tobacco products, goes into effect on July 11. Flavored electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) products are also banned.
The advertising rule applies to all types of media, including the Internet, social media, public transportation, and public events.
“The advertising, sales promotion and sponsorship of electronic cigarettes, liquids used in them, and devices for consumption of tobacco products without burning them (including IQOS and glo devices) will be prohibited from 11 July 2023,” according to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
“Flavored cigarettes and flavored liquids for ENDS will also be banned at that date. Further, from 11 January 2024, the combined textual plus pictorial warnings will be required to cover 65 percent of both sides of the pack of smoking tobacco products (conventional cigarettes).”
The fine in the case of a violation is UAH30,000 ($812), and for each subsequent violation – UAH50,000. In addition, similar to the general smoking ban, the law prohibits the use of heated tobacco products in all public places and businesses.
In 2021, Ukrainian lawmakers passed the law prohibiting the use of ENDS in public places as well as advertising, sponsorship, and promotion of e-cigarettes. The law also bans the sale of flavored e-liquids other than tobacco flavors.
July 10, 2023
Zimbabwe to Achieve Target Early
Workers at Atlas Agri receive bales of leaf at the company’s warehouse in Harare. Zimbabwe is anticipating record volumes this season. (Video: Taco Tuinstra)
Zimbabwe is poised to reach its 300 million kg tobacco crop target ahead of schedule with 284 million kg already delivered and sold this season, reports The Herald.
Last season the final count was 212 million kg. If the proportions of the final crop delivered by this time are the same as last year, Zimbabwe should reach its 300 million kg 2025 target within a few weeks.
“Over 284 million kgs of tobacco have been sold this season, surpassing the set targets, meaning we had a good and very productive season,” said Chelesani Tsarwe, public relations officer at the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, which regulates the trade.
In an attempt to extract more value from the country’s tobacco business, the government of Zimbabwe has formulated the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan. The blueprint aims to create a $5 billion tobacco industry by 2025 through a combination of value addition and increased leaf production.
The 284 million kg compares with 190 million kg sold in the same period last year and represents a new record.
The Herald, which tends to tow the government line, attributes the country’s productivity to its controversial land reform program in the early 2000s, which involved the confiscation of primarily white-owned commercial farms and redistribution of land to smallholders.
Prior to land reform, Zimbabwean tobacco was produced by about 1,500 commercial farmers who sold their tobacco at auction. Today, tobacco is produced by tens of thousands of small-scale farmers, most of whom contract directly with leaf merchants because they lack the means to finance their own operations.
Zimbabwe produces 6 percent of the world’s tobacco. The country reportedly has enough tobacco seed to cater for the next eight years.
July 9, 2023
Ghana Outlaws Vape Sales and Promotion

Ghana has banned all recreational use of vaping and e-cigarette products.
In a press release, the country’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) states that the “sale, advertisement and recreational use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as vapes and other non-nicotine tobacco products by the public” is illegal.
However, ENDS can be registered as a prescription-only medicine for the purposes of cessation therapy.
The FDA claims it has sent notice to manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retailers to remove all advertisements on social media, billboards and neon signs immediately and refrain from the importation of the products.
The FDA states that there “will be repercussions including sanctions” for failure to adhere to the rules.
July 9, 2023
Tabaterra to Produce JTI Brands for Georgia

Photo: Tabaterra
Tabaterra will produce certain Japan Tobacco International brands in Azerbaijan and sell them in Georgia under a recently signed deal between the companies.
“We are very pleased to have partnership with JTI on the production and export of global brands,” said Tabaterra Director Elman Javanshir in a statement. “The export agreement we signed is a clear example of production of high-quality products at Tabaterra in accordance with international standards.
According to Javanshir, the export agreement will make a significant contribution to the economy of Azerbaijan, generating annual foreign currency inflows of around $13 million.
“The export agreement we signed with Tabaterra CJSC is of great importance for JTI in terms of strengthening our position in the Georgian market,” said Sergey Buksa, general manager of JTI for Belarus and the Caucasus region.
“Based on the experience and production capabilities of our business partner, Tabaterra, we can now manufacture our global brands such as Sobranie, Winston and Camel in Azerbaijan in a shorter period of time and ensure its accessibility for Georgian consumers. The export agreement we have signed will contribute to the increase of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Georgia.”
Tabaterra was registered in November, 2017. In addition to its own products, the company produces international tobacco brands under license.
July 9, 2023
Price Hikes Drive Purchases Abroad

Photo: mema
Consecutive price hikes appear to have prompted Danish smokers to purchase more cigarettes abroad, reports The Local.
In 2019, Danish smokers purchased 250 million cigarettes in shops across the border. By 2022, that number increased to 700 million, according to the Ministry of Taxation. That reflects a rise in spending from DKR410 million ($60.34 million) to DKR1.15 billion.
The figures coincide with the rise in price of cigarettes in Denmark. Between 2020 and 2022, the price of a pack of cigarettes increased from DKR40 to DKR60.
“The Ministry of Taxation’s figures speak for themselves,” Janick Nytoft, managing director of The Cooperative Merchants, an industry organization, was quoted as saying by newswire Ritzau. “You cannot raise taxes in Denmark without increased cross-border trade. Cigarettes bought abroad do not make the Danes healthier, but the treasury and the shops poorer,”
Meanwhile, a 2022 survey of smoking habits, showed that the rise is cigarette prices had not significantly reduced the number of smokers in Denmark.
In 2022, 19 percent of people in Denmark smoked daily or occasionally, compared to 18 percent recorded in 2020. Among 15-19 year olds, smoking incidence actually increased. In 2022, 25 percent of this age group said they smoked daily or occasionally—up from 23 percent in 2022. The same age group also experienced a rise in users of e-cigarettes and smokeless nicotine products.
Health activists said the tax ministry’s numbers proved that the price hikes had been too modest. Mads Lind, chief consultant at the Heart Association, urged the government to increase prices to DKR100 per pack.
In addition to price hikes, Denmark has been debating other measures to reduce the number of smokers. Other proposals include plain packaging, restrictions on product displays and a so-called generational tobacco ban, which would prohibit sales to people born after a certain date.
According to the National Health Authority, around 13,600 people die every year from smoking in Denmark.
July 8, 2023
Ninth Circuit Denies Lotus MDO Review

Entrance to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the Ninth Circuit is by far the largest of the 13 courts of appeals. (Credit: Eric BVD)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on June 30 declined to review a Food and Drug Administration marketing denial order for Lotus Vaping Technologies’ flavored e-liquid products.
The FDA issued marketing denial orders for Lotus’ flavored products, finding that the petitioners’ applications lacked sufficient evidence showing that the flavored products would provide a benefit to adult users that outweighs the risks such products pose to youth.
Lotus challenged the ruling in court, but the judges held that the text of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act authorizes the FDA to require that manufacturers submit comparative health risk data, which necessarily includes comparisons of flavored e-liquids to tobacco-flavored e-liquids.
The judges also held that the FDA did not arbitrarily or capriciously deny Lotus’ applications and that any error the agency committed by failing to consider Lotus’ marketing plans was harmless.
July 8, 2023
Nigeria Suspends Taxes on Tobacco

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, has suspended excise taxes on some locally produced goods, including tobacco, and telecommunications services that were introduced two months ago, reports Bloomberg.
Tinubu signed the executive orders to “address business unfriendly fiscal policy measures and multiplicity of taxes,” according to his spokesman, Dele Alake.
The order includes certain imported vehicles, single-use plastic products and domestically manufactured alcoholic drinks and tobacco. The excise taxes were introduced by Muhammadu Buhari in his last weeks in office.
Tinubu “promised to run a government that will not make life difficult for Nigerians or asphyxiate corporate entities,” Alake said.
July 7, 2023
India: Sale of Excess Tobacco Allowed

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has permitted the sale of excess flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco via auction platforms, according to The New Indian Express.
The orders follow Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s letter to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal requesting farmers be allowed to sell excess FCV after being negatively affected by the Mandous cyclone.
“Of the total tobacco grown in 53,000 hectares, more than 50 percent of the area was severely damaged, due to which the farmers replanted the crop as there is no alternate crop,” Reddy wrote. “Mandous cycle caused tobacco growers to incur additional costs on the production of the crop during this year as the farmers were forced to go for replanting, which also forced the farmer to irrigate the crop during the season to save the crop. Cost of production increased heavily due to replanting, irrigation and increased labor costs.”
FCV tobacco farmers affected by the cyclone are not in a monetary position to pay penalties for excess tobacco produced beyond authorized quantities. Reddy requested orders similar to those in Karnataka allowing the sale of excess FCV be issued to help tobacco growers in Andhra Pradesh.
July 7, 2023
PMI to Supply Below-Cost Vapes Down Under

Image: PMI
Philip Morris will supply some Australian pharmacies with VEEV products at an 80 percent margin “introductory offer” if the pharmacies sign a supply deal directly with the company, according to The Guardian.
The offer is on condition that pharmacies do not sell a pack of two VEEV pods for more than $14.90 or VEEV devices for more than $19.90, which is cheaper than the prices wholesalers can offer.
Simon Chapman, emeritus professor of public health and tobacco control at the University of Sydney, accused PMI of “playing a long game here to wreck the prescription access model by disrupting the competition.”
“PMI [has] been implacably opposed to the provision of nicotine vaping products via prescription, actively lobbying for a consumer model,” Chapman said.
“Their efforts in Australia to eliminate competition via the 80 percent margin to pharmacists need to be considered in the context of its global ambitions to oppose prescribed access. Any tobacco company still actively marketing tobacco products and opposing effective tobacco control while ostensibly trying [to] promote a product with claims to move significant customers away from its tobacco products is trying to walk on both sides of the street.”
PMI has been lobbying Members of Parliament to overturn the country’s ban on vaping.
Pharmacy and health groups should urge members not to prescribe VEEV products or enter into agreements involving VEEV, said Chapman.
The pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) urged pharmacists to be skeptical of PMI’s offer. “There are currently no nicotine vaping products registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, and no company should be advertising unregulated products to Australian healthcare professionals,” a PSA spokesperson said.
Nick Zwar, chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners smoking cessation advisory group, said general practitioners “would want to know if it was a product that was owned by a tobacco company.”
“Our view is that medicine should be distributed through national wholesalers because that provides comfort to the doctors and the pharmacies that these products are being treated as medicines as they should be,” said Richard Lee, CEO of Liber Pharmaceuticals. “Anybody can present a script anywhere, whereas under the Philip Morris arrangement, people will have to present a script at a pharmacy that has done a deal with Philip Morris to get that product.”
“We have always been open and transparent about the fact we will work within whatever legal and regulatory framework exists for these products in Australia,” a PMI spokesperson said. “This is in stark contrast to dozens of other vaping companies who are providing their product via the black market.”
July 7, 2023
Court Sets Wrongful Death Timeline

Image: mehaniq41 | Adobe Stock
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that family members of a deceased individual cannot file wrongful death suits if the death occurred more than three years after the injury that caused the death, reports Reuters. This ruling upholds the dismissal of claims against Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Under Massachusetts law, according to Justice David Lowy, wrongful death claims are “derivative” of personal injury claims that the deceased could have brought in life. If the three-year statute of limitations has run out at time of death, family members have no wrongful death claims.
This latest decision follows two lawsuits, one against Philip Morris USA in 2017 (Fabiano v. Philip Morris USA Inc and others, No. SJC-13282) and one against R.J. Reynolds in 2016 (Fuller v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co and others, No. SJC-13346). Both were brought by the wives of men who became sick and died after lifetimes of smoking. The lawsuits accused the companies of breach of warranty, negligence and conspiracy. These wrongful death claims were dismissed by different trial judges, who stated that both men would have been time-barred from bringing their own claims when they died, meaning their family members were not able to file wrongful death claims.
The Supreme Judicial Court agreed to hear both cases. The court previously decided that wrongful death claims are derivative of the deceased’s claims but had not addressed how that would affect the statute of limitations, according to Lowy’s opinion.
The statute of limitations for the deceased’s underlying injury claims determines whether surviving family can bring a wrongful death claim, according to the language of the Massachusetts wrongful death law.
Lowy wrote that the decision “in no way changes what has long been true of persons suffering from serious injuries,” in a footnote addressing an argument by plaintiffs that the decision creates a “fundamental unfairness” by forcing sick individuals to bring lawsuits while they are suffering or forfeit their heirs’ rights to recovery.
“Once those injuries are knowable, plaintiffs must assert their rights within a specified period of time or lose their ability to recover for their injuries,” Lowy wrote.
July 7, 2023