Category: News This Week

PMI Applauds Plan to Simplify E-Cig Licensing

Photo: DW labs Incorporated
Philip Morris International announced its support of the U.K. government’s plan to simplify the pathway to license electronic cigarettes and other inhaled nicotine-containing products as medicines in England.
“The U.K. already has one of Europe’s lowest smoking rates, supported by a high rate of smokers who have switched to better alternatives,” the company wrote in a press note. “This proposal makes the U.K. the first country in the world to encourage the medical licensing of e-cigarettes via prescription as a route to further lower smoking rates, particularly among low-income smokers.”
“The U.K. is a global leader in medicine, science and public health,” said PMI’s senior vice president, of external affairs, Gregoire Verdeaux. “Expert scientific reviews in the U.K. and U.S. are clear that smoke-free alternatives—such as e-cigarettes—offer adults who would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes a better alternative. We welcome the U.K. government’s continued recognition that regulated e-cigarettes and other inhaled nicotine-containing products, while not risk-free, are less harmful than smoking and can significantly benefit public health.”
PMI said regulators can decisively accelerate the decline of smoking through risk-proportionate regulations for all nicotine-containing consumer products. A growing number of countries—including the U.S., New Zealand, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Bulgaria—have recognized this approach and implemented differentiated regulation for noncombustible alternatives, according to the company.
November 3, 2021
Harm Reduction Rally Ahead of COP9
Delegates from some of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations’ (INNCO) 37 member organizations in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia will gather in London on Nov. 8 to applaud the U.K. government’s evidence-based support for tobacco harm reduction and to highlight the importance of the ninth Conference of Parties of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which begins that day.
“We are ex-smokers who use safer nicotine to save our own lives,” said Charles Gardner, INNCO’s executive director, in a statement. “Many of us around the world face stigma for using nicotine, a drug that is no more harmful to health than caffeine. A global ‘misinfodemic’ is now spreading worldwide, and the only cure is to embrace evidence and evidence-based policies such as those in the United Kingdom.”
November 3, 2021
PMI Invests in Growth Stage Companies

Photo: William W. Potter
Philip Morris International plans to dedicate a further $200 million to minority investments in early and growth-stage companies through PM Equity Partner (PMEP), PMI’s corporate venture capital arm. This allocation follows a 2016 commitment of $150 million that PMEP has since fully invested and is intended to support PMI’s smoke-free and beyond nicotine ambitions.
With this latest round of funding, PMI will leverage its strengths to help investee companies translate innovation into commercial success. Developed through PMI’s journey to replace cigarettes with smoke-free alternatives, the company’s best-in-class capabilities include advanced life science expertise, preclinical and clinical research, and aerosolization.
PMEP is focusing its investment activities on four distinct technology segments: life science innovations, such as inhaled therapeutics and computational research methodologies; industrial technologies like industrial robotics and automation, the internet of things and technology-based process optimization; product technologies, particularly those that relate to inhalation and aerosolization, chemical formulation and bio-authentication; and consumer engagement technologies, such as user identification and age authentication, innovative customer care and experience management.
“PMI’s scientific and technological leadership has enabled us to reinvent our company in our pursuit to ‘unsmoke’ the world,” said PMI Chief Financial Officer Emmanuel Babeau in a statement. “We are dedicating further funds to our venture capital arm at a moment when we are in an even stronger position to leverage our expertise to support the development and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies to the benefit of both PMI and investee companies.”
“PMEP is looking to invest in companies that can help PMI accelerate and further sophisticate our transformation while we support them through our industry-leading expertise to mature their technologies and businesses,” said Alexander Stoeckel, head of PMEP. “We see this exchange as a win-win for PMI, the companies we invest in and society.”
November 2, 2021
Doctors Reluctant to Prescribe E-Cigarettes

Photo: omphoto
Not all doctors and nurses are enthusiastic about England’s intention to let physicians prescribe e-cigarettes to smokers, reports Daily Mail.
A yet-to-be-published study, involving the University of Oxford, which interviewed 11 medical staff, found most struggled to advise long-term use of e-cigarettes because of concerns about unknown long-term effects.
A survey commissioned by Cancer Research UK two years ago indicates that two in five English nurses and doctors would feel uncomfortable recommending e-cigarettes to smokers and one in six would never do so.
General practitioners “find it difficult handing patients something which may cause them harm, even where e-cigarettes are far safer than cigarettes… They struggle to give people devices which may not be entirely safe or may perpetuate addiction to nicotine,” said Paul Aveyard, professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Oxford, who was involved in both pieces of research.
Martin Marshall of the Royal College of general practitioners urged more investment in community smoking cessation centers. “’Vaping should only be seen as a way to give up smoking, with the intention to then give up vaping,” he said.
Simon Capewell, professor of clinical epidemiology at Liverpool University, called the Department of Health plan for prescription e-cigarettes deeply worrying.
“England is out on a dangerous limb,” he said. “Officials here have fallen for the exaggerated claims of the pro-vaping lobby, and are ignoring the health risks. The main claim, that e-cigarettes are a major aid to quitting, is wrong. If that were true, why would the multinational tobacco corporations be pushing vaping so hard?”
November 2, 2021
Christoph Tepr Joins Poda Holdings

Photo: Andryei Yalanskiy
Tobacco industry veteran Christoph Tepr has joined Poda Holdings as vice president of European sales & international expansion effective Jan. 17, 2022. In the interim, Tepr has joined the company’s global advisory board.
Tepr has more than 15 years of commercial experience with some of the biggest tobacco and e-cigarette companies in the world, including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Juul Labs. His broad management experience spans sales operations, commercial deployment, brand management and professional services—targeting customers in mature and emerging product/service segments. He has helped drive the growth of iconic brands such as L&M, IQOS, and Juul.
At PMI, Tepr held several key sales and management positions and was instrumental in deploying the IQOS product into the Swiss marketplace. At Juul, Tepr was hired to build the Swiss commercial organization from the ground up and, together with his team, took the company to category leadership within 12 months of launch. Subsequently, he successfully restructured the German commercial organization for Juul. Prior to this he held a commercial leadership position with British American Tobacco, focusing on commercializing and growing their Heat-not-Burn and conventional product portfolio.
Tepr holds a MSc in International Business from Maastricht University as well as an executive certificate in Driving Strategic Innovation from IMD Lausanne / MIT Sloan.
“Poda is an agile challenger in the fast-growing heat-not-burn space,” said Tepr in a statement. “With their proprietary technology platform, Poda represents a rare opportunity that has the potential to capture significant market share and ultimately transform and expand application areas within the category—while simultaneously improving the lives of the world’s 1.3 billion adult smokers by offering them a potentially less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. Having worked in multinational tobacco companies as well as for the fastest-growing e-cigarette start up in U.S. history, I look forward to using that experience to establish Poda’s European operations, set up a world-class team and make commercial headway into key European markets.”
“I am thrilled that Mr. Tepr has agreed to join the Poda team, both as a member of our global advisory board and, in January 2022, as the vice president of European sales & international expansion for Poda,” said Poda Holding CEO Ryan Selby. “Our goal is to build Poda into a truly global company that can challenge big tobacco head on, and we believe our superior heat-not-burn technology will allow us to do just that.”
November 2, 2021
Malaysia Plans Excise for Vapor Products

Photo: chachanit
The government of Malaysia plans to introduce excise duties on all vapor products containing nicotine, reports Malay Mail.
Without revealing the height of the intended taxes, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the move was to promote a healthier lifestyle among Malaysians.
British American Tobacco managing director Nedal Salem commended the plan, saying it was a right move towards tobacco harm reduction in Malaysia.
“Regulation will not only allow vape users access to reduced-risk alternatives to smoking, but also ensure the products used are compliant to quality and safety standards,” Salem wrote in a statement.
However, he warned the government that any new tax framework must be carefully crafted to ensure it does not drive consumers toward cheaper, less-regulated alternatives.
“If not, the mistakes of high tobacco excise rates will be repeated where currently the government loses MYR5 billion (1.2 billion) annually,” Salem wrote.
November 1, 2021
Tobacco Tax Dropped from U.S. Legislation

Photo: RomanR
Previously proposed tobacco tax increases have been removed from the U.S. Build Back Better Act, a massive piece of legislation conceived to fund Covid-19 relief, boost economic recovery and invest in new infrastructure. The most recent version of the proposed bill, H.R. 5376, makes no mention of the measures.
The dropped proposal would have effectively doubled the federal excise tax on small cigars and cigarettes, and it would have increased the tax on chewing tobacco from a little over $0.50 to $10.70—more than 21 times its current level. It also called for a new tax on vapor products.
The proposed tobacco tax hikes attracted fierce criticism from retailers and tobacco harm reduction advocates, among others.
On Sept. 24., the National Association of Convenience Stores sent a letter warning lawmakers against unintended consequences, such as illegal trade and underage sales.
“When the price of a product rises too much too fast, illicit purveyors will seize the opportunity to exploit and take advantage of current users and entice new users without discriminating based on age,” the letter read. “This undermines the responsible measures our retailers have taken and creates a problem for society as a whole.”
Earlier, the Tax Foundation cautioned that the proposal would make cigarettes—the most harmful tool to consume nicotine—cheaper than other, less-risky tobacco products in many states.
While every U.S. state taxes cigarettes by quantity, a majority tax other tobacco products by price. When states tax tobacco products by price, the tax on the product will “pyramid” since the federal tax is levied at the manufacturer level and the state tax is levied at the distribution level, according to the Tax Foundation.
“In effect, the state tax base includes the federal tax and becomes a tax on a tax,” wrote Ulrik Boesen, senior policy analyst in excise taxes of the Tax Foundation.
While the most recent version of the H.R. 5376 omits tobacco tax hikes, there is no guarantee the measure will not reappear in future renderings of the proposed legislation.
November 1, 2021
Brazil: Tobacco Harvest ‘Inaugurated’

SindiTabaco President Iro Schunke honors tobacco growers during a ceremony in Rio Grande do Sul celebrating the sector’s contributions. (Photo: SindiTabaco)
Brazil leaf tobacco sector “inaugurated” the tobacco harvest on Oct. 28 in the Faxinal de Dentro district of Rio Grande do Sul. Promoted by the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, the festivity is an official event of the state government and relies on support from the Interstate Tobacco Industry Union (SindiTabaco), Tobacco Growers’ Association of Brazil (Afubra) and the municipal administration of Vale do Sol.
Speaking during the ceremony, SindiTabaco President Iro Schunke said the inauguration of the harvest, held on Tobacco Growers’ Day, is an excellent opportunity to acknowledge tobacco farmers’ social and economic contributions.
“Approximately 10 percent of all Rio Grande do Sul exports last year consisted of tobacco shipments,” he said in a statement. “Several mayors report that, after the arrival of tobacco in their municipalities, things changed for the better, seeing that there was an increase in tax collection for the benefit of all citizens.”
November 1, 2021
Puff Bar CEOs Profiled

Photo: Puff Bar
The Wall Street Journal recently profiled Patrick Beltran and Nick Minas, co-CEOs of Puff Bar, a top-selling disposable e-cigarette brand in the United States.
Puff Bar entered the U.S. market in 2019. At the time, it was owned by Cool Clouds Distribution of California. Cool Clouds sold the Puff Bar to the brand’s Chinese manufacturer, DS Technology Licensing, in early 2020.
In February 2020, to curb youth vaping, the Food and Drug Administration implemented new restrictions excluding sweet and fruit flavors in reusable e-cigarettes such as those offered by Juul Labs. The restrictions did not apply to disposable devices such as Puff Bars.
In the summer of 2020, however, the FDA ordered Puff Bar products off the market. Critics said the brand was replacing Juul as the vape of choice among young people as Juul discontinued certain flavored products. In February 2021 Puff Bar resumed sales with redesigned product containing synthetic nicotine, which remains outside the FDA’s purview.
Minas and Beltran became executives of Puff Bar as CEO and CFO respectively in the spring of 2020, when the brand was taken over by two men and DS Technology as per company filings. The entrepreneurs owned and operated an online e-cigarette retailer called Eliquidstop.
In the Wall Street Journal article, Beltran described the Puff Bar ingredient change as “a forced innovation,” saying that the FDA gave the company no choice.
Puff Bar sales in retail stores tracked by Nielsen totaled $156 million for the year ended Sept. 25, according to Goldman Sachs, although it is unclear how many of those sales are counterfeit products. In a federal survey released in Sept., 26 percent of high-school vaporizers said they used Puff Bars. Among middle-school e-cigarette users, 30 percent reported that their generic brand was Puff Bars.
November 1, 2021
TMA Announces Virtual Annual Conference
TMA will hold a virtual annual conference on Nov. 16-17, TMA 2021: From Chance to Change. As the industry has been challenged in many ways this year, TMA believes it is important to share insights among all stakeholders to equip its audience and members with the understanding and information necessary to successfully navigate the changes that lie ahead. TMA 2021 will feature two half-day interactive virtual sessions with keynotes from regulatory leaders and panel discussions from industry and stakeholder thought leaders that covers everything from Food and Drug Administration policy, marketing denial orders, product authorization pathways (PMTA, SE, MRTP, exemptions) and global trends that may surface in the U.S. and vice-versa.
“For this year’s TMA Annual Conference, we felt it was important to capitalize on the breadth and depth of speakers and expertise that only TMA can bring and condense that into the most important topics for our attendees who have also spent the last 24 months living virtually. We are very proud of our lineup for TMA 2021 and the information that it brings to the people doing the work on the front lines. You simply cannot get this anywhere else but from TMA,” said TMA President and CEO Chris Greer.
The program includes live keynote presentations with Q&As by FDA CTP Director Mitch Zeller and CTP Office of Science Director Matt Holman followed by these panel discussions:
An Applicant’s Perspective: Reflections on Where We Stand – Moderated by Jim Solyst, industry consultant
The Marketplace Perspective: Adjusting to Change – Moderated by Mary Szarmach, Smoker Friendly
Early and Often: Navigating Your Path to Market – Moderated by Jennifer Smith, Altria Client Services
Connecting U.S. and Global Trends – Moderated by Jeannie Cameron, JCIC International Consultants
“2021 was another challenging year for in-person events; following feedback from our members and guests, TMA elected to hold our annual conference virtually and will host our annual meeting and conference in 2022 as an in-person and virtual event,” said Greer.
For this year’s TMA Annual Conference, we felt it was important to capitalize on the breadth and depth of speakers and expertise that only TMA can bring and condense that into the most important topics for our attendees who have also spent the last 24 months living virtually.
Chris Greer, president and CEO, TMA
TMA 2020 | Digital was TMA’s first virtual only event and featured an expansive program of hour-long discussions and keynotes spread over several months. TMA 2021 takes the best of that format along with a super-charged program aimed directly at those most active in the industry and stakeholder community.
Registration will open on or about Nov. 1 and run up through the conference commencement. Registered attendees will have the ability to view content for 30 days following the end of TMA 2021 and TMA members will have access for longer still. Registration is $299 for non-members and $199 for TMA members.
For more information, please see tma.org or send inquiries to tma@tma.org.
October 29, 2021