Category: News This Week

Ukraine’s competition watchdog has fined cigarette manufacturers and a distributor UAH6.5 billion ($263.4 million) for anti-competitive behavior, reports Interfax Ukraine.

The Anti-Monopoly Committee said the country’s leading tobacco companies and their common distributor, TEDIS, had conspired to keep new businesses from entering the market.

“Violators have established such conditions for concluding contracts with potential distributors other than TEDIS, and it was simply impossible for them to appear on this market,” the committee said.

The tobacco companies involved are Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock has ordered a temporary halt to the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in the state in response to the recent spate of serious lung illnesses reported across the U.S. The emergency rules take effect Oct. 22 and will last 120 days.

On Tuesday, health officials in Gallatin County identified Montana’s second confirmed case of vaping-related lung illness.

“We have an epidemic across the country of youth using these products. And in Montana, our numbers are even higher than the national average,” said Greg Holzman, medical officer with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

According to a 2019 survey of high schoolers, the number of Montana students who say they use e-cigarettes or vapor products frequently has tripled in the last two years.

According to new data from the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey, e-cigarette use among high school students nationwide increased to 27.5 percent in 2019 compared with 11.7 percent in 2017 and 20.8 percent in 2018. Altogether, 5 million middle school students and high school students now use e-cigarettes.

Ninety-seven percent of youth e-cigarette users report using a flavored product in the past month and 70 percent cite flavors as the reason for their use.

The U.S. vapor market will shrink by 13 percent as vapers return to smoking, despite government warnings not to do so, according to ECigIntelligence.

The recent outbreak of lung disease linked to vaping in the United States will sharply slow the growth of the world’s e-cigarette industry over the coming year.

The U.S. will suffer the business consequences most heavily, with the market expected to shrink by 13 percent, according to specialist researchers at ECigIntelligence.

This will largely be the result of “dual users”—individuals who both vape e-cigarettes and smoke tobacco products—reverting to the use of conventional tobacco products alone.

Both the lung outbreak itself, and the bans on vaping products imposed by some U.S. states as a result, are major factors in this change.

“Consumers abandoning vapor and returning to smoking will not only be a blow to the sector, but also threatens to reverse many of the public-health benefits that e-cigarettes have conferred,” said Barnaby Page, editorial director of ECigIntelligence.

“Although it seems increasingly unlikely that legitimate nicotine vapour products are the cause of the problem, and although both the CDC and FDA are advising that vapers who use these products should not return to smoking, the damage in terms of public perceptions may already have been done.”

In 2020 the global vaping market will be valued at $14.4 billion. This means growth of the global market between 2019 and 2020 will be flat—but before the emergence of these issues affecting the industry, ECigIntelligence had forecast 14 percent year-on-year growth.

The consequences of the high-profile events in the U.S. will be felt less acutely in other countries, but both Canada and Britain will be affected, ECigIntelligence predicts.

In both countries, the 2019-2020 growth rate for the e-cigarette market will be roughly halved to 10 percent.

However, other major European markets are not expected to be impacted, ECigIntelligence says.

Altria formally launched Philip Morris International’s (PMI) IQOS heat-not-burn device in the United States on Friday.

The product debuted in Atlanta, Georgia, where Altria has opened an IQOS store with tall glass windows and light wood.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the product’s sale in the U.S. in April, setting strict marketing guidelines aimed at ensuring only adult smokers use IQOS.

Access to the IQOS store is strictly controlled. Customers have to show identification and declare whether they currently smoke cigarettes. Nonsmokers and those under 21 are turned away, according to Altria.

People can test the IQOS in a “guided trial room.” A bundle containing the holder and 200 “heatstick” consumables retails for $80.

The IQOS marketing authorization requires Altria to keep detailed records and send the FDA quarterly reports on its sales, including details like demographic data on its customers and how many have switched to IQOS from cigarettes or use both products.

The company must also send an annual report with more granular information, including any reports of adverse experiences.

Wells Fargo Securities said IQOS holds a distinct competitive advantage in the U.S. given that it’s the only reduced-risk product authorized by the FDA that will also be allowed to sell mint/menthol flavors in the event the FDA clears the market of nontobacco flavor variants.

Mint and menthol flavors are believed to be instrumental in helping smokers switch from cigarettes to reduced-risk products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday strengthened its warning to consumers to stop using vaping products containing THC amid more than 1,000 reports of lung injuries including some resulting in deaths following the use of vaping products.

The FDA is working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state and local public health partners to investigate these illnesses as quickly as possible.

While the work by federal and state health officials to identify more information about the products used, where they were obtained, and what substances they contain is ongoing, the FDA is providing members of the public with additional information to help protect themselves.

Most of the samples tested by the states or by the FDA related to this investigation have been identified as vaping products containing THC. Through this investigation, the FDA also found most of the patients impacted by these illnesses reported using THC-containing products, suggesting THC vaping products play a role in the outbreak.

The FDA’s recommendations to the public are:

• Do not use vaping products that contain THC.
• Do not use vaping products—particularly those containing THC—obtained off the street or from other illicit or social sources.
• Do not modify or add any substances, such as THC or other oils, to vaping products, including those purchased through retail establishments.
• No vaping product has been approved by the FDA for therapeutic uses or authorized for marketing by the FDA. The agency recommends contacting your health care provider for more information about the use of THC to treat medical conditions.
• No youth or pregnant women should be using any vaping product, regardless of the substance. Adults who do not currently use tobacco products should not start using these products. If you are an adult who uses e-cigarettes instead of cigarette smoking, do not return to smoking cigarettes.
• If you choose to use these products, monitor yourself for symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath, chest pain) and promptly seek medical attention if you have concerns about your health.

A state appellate court has put New York’s ban on the sale of flavored vapor products on hold.

Judges granted a temporary restraining order Thursday that stops the state from enforcing a ban set to begin today. They are expected to rule on a preliminary injunction on Oct. 18.

The ban, announced in late September, had been challenged by the Vapor Technology Association (VTA) and two New York retailers, who claimed that the state’s ban exceeded authorities’ constitutional, statutory and administrative authority.

VTA Executive Director Tony Abboud said that the court’s decision “acknowledges the strength of our claims about the state’s executive overreach.”

Vape-shop owners have said that the ban would effectively put them out of business because flavored products make up the majority of sales.

Health officials pushed for the ban in response to rising underage vaping and a rash of unexplained vaping-related illnesses throughout the United States.