Category: News This Week

  • Shakeup at Juul

    Shakeup at Juul

    Juul Labs has named a new chief financial officer and eliminated the position of chief marketing officer amid a management shakeup, reports CNBC.

    Several top executives have left the company, including Chief Administrative Officer Ashley Gould and Chief Financial Officer Tim Danaher, two veteran employees at the start-up. Newcomers Craig Brommers, chief marketing officer, and David Foster, senior vice president of advanced technologies, have also left.

    Juul appointed as its new CFO Guy Cartwright, who joined the company in July as an executive transformation and operations officer.

    Co-founders James Monsees and Adam Bowen, who formerly held the positions of chief product officer and chief technology officer, respectively, will join a newly formed founders office, where they will advise CEO K.C. Crosthwaite.

    The changes come as Juul prepares to cut about 500 jobs, or about 10 percent to 15 percent of its 4,100-strong headcount, by the end of the year.

    “As the vapor category undergoes a necessary reset, this reorganization will help Juul Labs focus on reducing underage use, investing in scientific research, and creating new technologies while earning a license to operate in the U.S. and around the world,” said Altria Group veteran Crosthwaite, who became CEO at Juul Labs in September.

    The tobacco giant invested $12.8 billion in Juul in December.

     

  • RJR not Liable

    RJR not Liable

    A Florida state court jury has cleared R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. of responsibility for a long-time smoker’s cancer death.

    The jurors concluded that nicotine addiction did not legally cause the lung cancer that killed Eugene Delancy in 1996. Delancy’s family has requested $3
    million in compensatory damages plus a finding that punitive damages were warranted.

    The case stems from Engle v. Liggett Group Inc., a 1994 Florida state court class-action lawsuit against Reynolds and other tobacco companies. The
    state’s supreme court ultimately decertified the class but ruled the cases may be tried individually.

    While plaintiffs in the so-called Engle progeny cases are entitled to the benefit of the jury’s findings in the original verdict, they must prove the smokers at the
    heart of their cases suffered from nicotine addiction that caused a smoking-related illness.

  • Ban Halted

    Ban Halted

    A judge has overturned Utah’s emergency rule banning the sale of flavored ejuices.

    Third District Court Judge Keith Kelly said the Utah Department of Health overstepped its authority in implementing the emergency rule and should instead have followed an administrative rule-making process. He also agreed with the plaintiffs’ assertion that enforcement would cause vape shop owners irreparable harm.

    Vape shops sued after the Utah Department of Health implemented a rule blocking nonlicensed specialty tobacco shops from selling flavored e-cigarette
    products to help stem an outbreak of vaping-related illnesses. So far, 98 cases have been reported in Utah.

    The vape shops’ attorney argued there is no “emergency” and the rule puts up to 680 small Utah businesses at risk. The outbreak, they argued, is tied to
    illegal THC products not flavored juices.

    The Utah Attorney General’s Office claimed that while illegal THC was a component, health officials still believed many cases involved regular nicotine
    juices.

    The judge’s restraining order will lapse on Nov. 22 when both sides are scheduled to return to court for a preliminary injunction hearing where vape
    shops could seek to make the order permanent.

  • Clarifying Expectations

    Clarifying Expectations

    The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products is holding a public meeting today and tomorrow in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, to provide information on the agency’s expectations for tobacco product applications with a particular focus on deemed tobacco products (e.g., cigars, waterpipes and electronic nicotine-delivery systems including e-liquids and electronic cigarettes) including product review policies, procedures and general scientific principles.

    The information is intended to improve public understanding and assist persons considering submitting marketing applications for tobacco products under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, including pre-market tobacco product applications, substantial equivalence (SE) reports and the exemption from SE.

    Topics to be addressed in the meeting include:

    • Overview of the tobacco product marketing application pathways
    • Information that should be included in a tobacco product marketing application
    • Administrative processes involved in the submission and review of a tobacco product marketing application
    • Other topics relevant to the submission of tobacco product marketing applications, including communications between the FDA and the industry during an application review process, use of tobacco product master files as well as electronic submission resources and tools.

    To view the public meeting online, click here.

  • Farmers Decry Tax Hike

    Farmers Decry Tax Hike

    Indonesian tobacco farmers say demand for their leaf has declined ahead of tax and price hike schedule for 2020, according to a report in Tempo. 

    The government plans to raise the cigarette excise rate by 21.56 percent on average and the cigarette retail selling price by 35 percent next year.

    Agus Setiawan, deputy secretary general of the Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association, asked Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko to revisit the plan.

    The Finance Ministry’s Customs and Excise Director-General Heru Pambudi said the government was prepared to share its cigarette excise revenues with tobacco farmers, by returning a part of the take through regional governments.

    Source: Tempo

  • FDA Warns Eonsmoke

    FDA Warns Eonsmoke

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent a warning letter to Eonsmoke, notifying the company that nearly 100 flavored of its e-cigarette products do not have the required marketing authorization.

    The letter states that the products cannot be legally sold in the United States and rebukes the company for illegally suggesting to consumers that Eonsmoke products are less harmful than other commercially marketed tobacco products, according to an FDA release.

    The FDA’s warning letter additionally cites the company for omitting nicotine warning statements and failing to submit product ingredient information to the agency.

    FDA has requested a written response from Eonsmoke within 15 working days informing the agency of the specific actions taken to address the concerns.

  • Profits Up

    Profits Up

    Swedish Match’s third quarter 2019 operating profits were up 21.4 percent, strengthened by sales growth from its Zyn tobacco-free nicotine pouch product. Operating profits for the quarter were SKR1.59 billion, up from SKR1.31 billion in the third quarter of 2018.

    Shipments of Zyn in the U.S. amounted to 31 million cans during the first nine months, up from 8.5 million cans in the prior year, according to Swedish Match.

  • Altria Mulls Sale of Sherman

    Altria Mulls Sale of Sherman

    Altria Group is “exploring options” for its premium cigar subsidiary, Nat Sherman International, including selling the business, according to an article in
    Cigar Aficionado.

    In a statement, an Altria representative said the premium cigar business is not core to Altria’s tobacco portfolio. Nat Sherman International includes the company’s cigar brands. The Nat

    Sherman cigarette brand is not part of the subsidiary that might be sold.

    Altria acquired Nat Sherman International from the Sherman family in January 2017.

  • Protesting Job Cuts

    Protesting Job Cuts

    Japan Tobacco International (JTI) employees protested outside the company’s Geneva headquarters on Tuesday against scheduled job cuts, reports Swissinfo.

    Last month, the company announced a restructuring plan involving the elimination of 268 jobs in Geneva—about a quarter of its workforce in the city. Some positions may be relocated to East Asia and Eastern Europe, JTI said.

    Eighty staff members gathered outside the glass headquarters building in Geneva’s international district to express their concern about a proposed resettlement package and what they described as lack of transparency about the cuts and plans.

    JTI employs 45,000 people worldwide and has been based in Geneva since 2015.

    The multinational will concentrate its resources in Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Manila. Worldwide cuts are expected to affect 3,720 employees, or 6 percent of the JTI workforce. The company says it headquarters will remain in Geneva.

  • Unfiltered Cigs Most Risky

    Unfiltered Cigs Most Risky

    Smoking unfiltered cigarettes poses a greater risk of lung cancer than smoking filtered cigarettes, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

    Among the 14,123 patients included in the study, those who smoked unfiltered cigarettes were 40 percent more likely than those who smoked filtered cigarettes to develop lung cancer and almost twice as likely to die of lung cancer.

    Researchers noted that although the risk was greater in those who smoked unfiltered cigarettes, those who smoked filtered cigarettes are also at a great risk. The study demonstrated lung cancer deaths occur in 1,600 per 100,000 persons who smoked filtered cigarettes compared with just 34 per 100,000 persons who never smoked.