Category: News This Week

Study Debunks Myths About Smokers

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Contrary to popular perceptions, most smokers in Australia are educated, employed and in good mental health, according to a national study by the Australian National University (ANU).
Study senior author Emily Banks said the findings will help break down stigma surrounding people who smoke as well as ensure that support is better targeted to the people who need it.

“Smoking remains Australia’s leading cause of premature death and disability, so it’s vital that we better understand who smokes and the reasons why they do,” she said in a statement.

“People who smoke are often stigmatized and stereotyped as uneducated, unemployed and mentally ill.”
“We analyzed nationally representative data on smoking in Australia to get a better understanding of who smokes in our population,” said lead author, Jessica Aw, a medical student at ANU. “We found that around 2.5 million people smoke daily in Australia; around 60 percent of people who smoke are men, 65 percent live in major cities, and 92 percent are non-Indigenous.

“In addition, 69 percent have completed year 12, 69 percent of those of working age are in paid employment and 73 percent had good mental health.

“Although smoking is more common in people who are experiencing structural disadvantage—like people in more remote areas, Indigenous peoples, those with less education and those living in poverty—most people who smoke are educated, employed and in good mental health, similar to the total population of Australia.”

The findings are published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
February 19, 2024
Eastern CEO Defends Price Hike

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Eastern Co. increased cigarette prices by between EGP2 ($0.06) and EGP8 per pack, effective Feb. 17, 2024, reports Ahram Online.
The company’s most affordable brand, Cleopatra, now retails for EGP30 instead of EGP27 for a pack of 20 cigarettes.
This marks the company’s second price hike in three months. Cigarette prices have increased multiple times over the past year in Egypt amid the decreasing value of the Egyptian pound against the U.S dollar.
Earlier this month, Philip Morris Egypt raised prices of traditional cigarette brands, including Marlboro, Merit and L&M, by between EGP9 and EGP11 per pack.
In a television interview, Eastern Co. CEO Hani Aman insisted the price hikes were modest when compared to the significant increase in the cost of raw materials.
“We are not a very commercial company, otherwise we would have raised our prices by large proportions like other companies, but we look at the issue from a different point of view. Cigarettes are a strategic commodity,” he was quoted as saying by The Egypt Independent.
According to Aman, 95 percent of cigarette components are imported. The price of cigarette filters, for example, has increased by about 400 percent, he said.
Approximately 18 million people out of Egypt’s nearly 105 million-strong population smoke cigarettes, according to official data.
February 18, 2024
Singapore to Strengthen Vaping Enforcement

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Singapore plans to intensify its crackdown on vaping, reports The Straits Times.
In a joint statement in December 2023, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and the Ministry of Health said enforcement and education efforts would be stepped up to prevent vaping from gaining a foothold in Singapore.
The city state banned vaping in 2018. Buying, owning or using a vaporizer in Singapore can result in fines of up to SGS2,000 ($1,484.69). First-time offenders who import, distribute, sell or offer for sale vaporizers and their components can be fined up to SGD10,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.
Authorities encourage citizens with information on the illegal possession, use, purchase, import, distribution, sale or offer for sale of vaporizers to the Tobacco Regulation Branch.
Despite the risks, vaping has been steadily gaining ground in Singapore, with consumers buying vapes online and from overseas suppliers. In 2022, 4,916 people were violating Singapore’s vaping ban, compared with 1,266 in 2020 and 4,697 in 2021. In December 2023 alone, authorities reported 1,656 vaping -related cases.
February 18, 2024
Hong Kong Urged to Raise Taxes

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The Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) has called on the city’s government to increase the tobacco tax by at least three quarters in the 2024-2025 budget, reports the South China Morning Post.
Such a raise would bring the levy in line with the World Health Organization’s recommendation for taxes to account for 75 percent or more of cigarettes’ retail price. The proposed tax hike will push up the cigarette retail price to about HKD115 ($14.70) per pack, a potential tipping point for many smokers to consider cessation.
The move will also help Hong Kong achieve its goal of reducing smoking prevalence to 7.8 percent by 2025, according to the COSH. The smoking prevalence in Hong Kong was 9.5 percent in 2021.
COSH also advocates for an automatic tax increase mechanism for future annual tax hikes, adjusted to counteract the effects of inflation and income growth, and avoid the tax’s proportion in the overall retail price of cigarettes being decreased by industry price hikes.
According to the COSH, raising the tobacco tax requires the least implementation costs and enforcement resources, and the shortest time for legislation and implementation, while delivering the quickest and most significant results.
February 18, 2024
KT&G Finalizes Second CEO Shortlist

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KT&G’s CEO candidate recommendation committee finalized the selection of candidates to be included in the second shortlist for the next CEO position. The candidates are Chul-ho Her (CEO of Korea Ginseng Corp.), Gye-hyun Kwon (former vice president of Samsung Electronics), Kyung-man Bang (senior vice president of KT&G) and Seok-joo Lee (former CEO of AK Holdings).
In selecting the candidates, the committee assessed to what extent the qualifications and competencies of the eight candidates on the first shortlist align with the five key competency criteria required for a CEO, which include management expertise, global expertise, strategical thinking skills, stakeholder communications and universal morality and ethical awareness.
The committee plans to conduct face-to-face interviews with each candidate on the second shortlist and name the final candidate following the committee resolution next week. The CEO will be officially appointed at the annual general meeting of shareholders in late March.
In a press note announcing the second shortlist, KT&G reiterated its commitment to fair and transparent CEO selection process. In late 2023, shareholder Flashlight Capital Partners urged KT&G to select its next CEO in a more transparent manner.
“The CEO candidate recommendation committee is fully committed to ensuring the transparency, fairness and objectivity throughout the candidate assessment process, adhering to the principle of maximizing the interests of all shareholders and the future value of the company,” said Myung-chul Kim, chairman of the KT&G CEO candidate recommendation committee.
“After conducting in-depth interviews with each candidate, we will determine and announce the most suitable candidate for the next CEO position, possessing the leadership qualities necessary to drive KT&G to greater heights of a global leading company.”
February 16, 2024
Court Urged to Revive Liquid Application

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SWT Global Supply, a maker of menthol-flavored e-cigarette liquids, has urged the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive its rejected application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to continue selling its products, arguing that the FDA had not given the company fair notice of what would be required for approval, reports Reuters.
This latest appeal is one of many similar cases by e-cigarette companies following the FDA’s rule deeming e-cigarette products be subject to the same law as cigarettes and the FDA’s denial of millions of applications by manufacturers to sell their products. Federal appeals courts are split as to whether the FDA acted fairly.
SWT lawyer Jerad Najvar told a three-judge panel that SWT’s applications were denied because the company failed to present a controlled trial or study showing that menthol liquids can help adult smokers quit smoking compared to tobacco-flavored liquids. According to Najvar, the FDA’s guidance did not make it clear that such a study would be required.
“A client like mine doesn’t have a lot of arrows in its quiver when it’s trying to fight a decision by a federal agency,” said Navjar, referring to SWT being a small company with limited resources.
Comparing a product’s effectiveness to tobacco-flavored products is “a natural part of the risk benefit analysis,” according to Catherine Padhi, a lawyer for the FDA. She noted that SWT was free to submit additional information to support its application.
In 2021, the FDA denied SWT’s applications for liquids in various nonmenthol flavors, and in 2023, the FDA denied applications for menthol flavors. The nonmenthol denials are part of a separate, still-pending appeal in the 5th Circuit.
Most other appeals courts have sided with the FDA in similar cases.
February 16, 2024
Califf Pushing U.S. Menthol Ban: Politico

Photo: FDA
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf has privately asked friends and public health experts to lobby the White House to ban menthol cigarettes, according to Politico. Califf reportedly fears that President Joe Biden might abandon the policy to avoid backlash from Black voters before the upcoming elections. The minority communities are core to Biden’s voter base.
“Fundamentally, these bold actions are about saving hundreds of thousands of lives each year,” Califf said in 2022, when the FDA first proposed the ban. “Prohibiting menthol in cigarettes would mean over 18.5 million menthol cigarette smokers ages 12 and older in the United States would have a better shot at quitting.”
In October 2023, the FDA finalized its menthol ban policy and submitted it for approval. However, the White House has not given it the go ahead due to pushback from a handful of influential Black industry allies who warn the ban would fuel an underground market, worsen over policing in minority communities and have a negative effect on Biden’s standing among Black voters.
Advocates of the ban fear that the delay means politics will override the urgency of the ban and that Biden will delay implementation until after the November presidential election.
“We’re now in a political season, and it’s only going to get tougher for them to do it,” said Yolonda Richardson, CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “All the delays are to the benefit of the tobacco industry. That’s just more time they have to keep them on the street, that much more time to addict kids.”
Recently, Califf has been raising the issue internally in addition to soliciting outside help. He has enlisted senior White House officials and Health and Human Services officials to help advocate for the ban. Califf has also personally pressed senior Biden aides on the decision.
“Everybody’s done what they could do,” said a senior administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. The White House declined to comment, citing a policy against discussing rules before they’re finalized.
“The FDA remains committed to issuing the tobacco product standards for menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars as exponentially as possible, said Michael Felberbaum, FDA spokesperson.
“In the last year of this administration, so many things happen with a lot of pressure to get things finished, and sometimes political pressure comes into play,” said Califf, who has also sought to restrict flavored cigars and wants to mandate lower nicotine levels in all cigarettes and other tobacco products. “A lot of considerations have to be navigated.”
The FDA had initially hoped to finalize the menthol ban before the end of 2023. Now, the FDA has set a new deadline of March for a final rule.
February 16, 2024
Pyxus Recognized as Environmental Leader

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Pyxus International has been recognized as a leader in climate change transparency and performance by the environmental nonprofit CDP. CDP ranked Pyxus among the top tier of responding companies in the climate change category, earning the business “Leadership” status, the highest level of achievement.
“Achieving CDP’s Leadership status is a testament to our global teams’ hard work, ingenuity and commitment to growing a better world,” said Pyxus President and CEO Pieter Sikkel in a statement. “We are pleased that our unified approach to sustainable action and core belief in transparency has earned us this coveted recognition, and as we move forward in our net-zero journey, it will serve as a reminder that our efforts, large and small, make an impact.”
Pyxus’ A- score for its actions to mitigate climate change ranked higher than the industry, North America and global averages of B, C and C, respectively, and reflects the company’s 11 percent year-over-year reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as reported in its FY2023 Sustainability Report and its CDP disclosure. Additionally, the company earned a B score in both the water security and forestry categories, which indicates it has addressed the environmental impacts of the business and has implemented good environmental management practices specific to water and forestry.
Pyxus’ scores reflect data compiled from its family of companies and brands, and were determined by CDP-accredited scoring partners on a scale ranging from A to D- and then measured against more than 21,000 entities as part of the 2023 process.
Pyxus began reporting its greenhouse gas emissions to CDP in 2009, its water data in 2014 and its forestry data in 2020.
February 16, 2024
Anti-Illicit Trade Convention Concludes

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The Third session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP3) to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products concluded Feb. 15 with new commitments to combat the black market.
“Our meeting this week took important decisions on tobacco tracking-and-tracing systems and approved a road map to conduct evidence-based research on illicit trade,” said Adriana Blanco Marquizo, who as head of the Secretariat of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control also oversees the Protocol.
“We also agreed on improvements for the reporting system our Parties use, which will strengthen the quality of data on implementation of the Protocol that can help guide future tobacco control efforts,” she said in a statement.
The MOP is the governing body of the Protocol, which is an international treaty that entered into force in 2018 and aims to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products through a package of measures to be taken by countries acting in cooperation with one another.
“It is a global solution to a global problem,” said Blanco Marquizo.
Illicit trade accounts for about 11 percent of total global tobacco trade, and its elimination could increase global tax revenues by an estimated $47.4 billion annually.
Representatives from 56 Parties to the Protocol and 27 non-Party States gathered in Panama City, Feb.12-14 to tackle a range of issues from progress on implementation of the treaty to sustainable financing for tobacco control.
MOP3 also adopted the Panama Declaration that calls on national governments to be alert for what it described industry campaign to undermine efforts to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products.
The Panama Declaration also emphasized the need for effective action to prevent and combat illicit trade in tobacco products, which requires a comprehensive international approach to—and close cooperation on—all aspects of illicit trade in tobacco, tobacco products and tobacco manufacturing equipment.
Contradicting the observations of some tobacco grower representatives and consumer activists, the WHO said MOP3 was open to the media.
February 16, 2024
A Misguided Crusade

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The campaigns against lower risk nicotine products serve political goals at the expense of public health.
By Catharine Dockery
Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and many other countries. Shouldn’t our leaders do everything they can to prevent deaths and reduce harm?
Unfortunately, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and the Food and Drug Administration have missed a profound public health opportunity by not encouraging reduced-harm nicotine products such as Zyn. Instead, they are targeting these lifesaving products and proposing wide-reaching bans.
While youth usage of nicotine is a deeply concerning issue, product prohibitions are an ineffective distraction from the failure of the FDA to act proactively to protect Americans. Flavored recreational nicotine options are essential tools to present combustible cigarette smokers with less harmful options they enjoy. Public health officials need to stop scapegoating harm reduction products targeted to adult smokers and instead focus on addressing youth use.
Other public health organizations, such as the U.K. National Health Service (NHS), have recognized the potential of harm reduction products in saving lives and promoted recreational nicotine options. For example, their “swap to stop” program has offered new noncombustible tobacco products to smokers in an effort to move them to lower risk alternatives. The NHS website offers that “[i]n recent years, e-cigarettes have become a very popular stop-smoking aid in the U.K. Also known as vapes or e-cigs, they’re far less harmful than cigarettes and can help you quit smoking for good.”
In the United States, by contrast, government officials and public health agencies are spurning a significant opportunity in reduced-harm nicotine products. In 2023, nearly half a million adults died in the United States from the effects of cigarettes.
Research demonstrates that flavored nicotine products provide a less harmful option for adult cigarette smokers who are trying to find a substitute for their habit.
A 2021 study found that among U.S. adults who smoke, despite only 29 percent being aware of nicotine pouches, nearly 17 percent expressed interest in trying the products in the coming six months.
To the extent adult smokers are able to substitute pouches for cigarettes, it’s absolutely appropriate to view these products as lower harm options on a continuum of risk.
Some research indicates that e-cigarettes can be more effective than nicotine-replacement therapy products like gums and lozenges at helping smokers quit, showing the role of these products in the public health fight against tobacco-related harm.
Policymakers’ efforts to restrict harm reduction products are often done under the guise of protecting children. But in no other industry do we consider product bans a reasonable control to address underage use. It would be unheard of to ban alcohol to prevent underage drinking.
Product bans have been largely unsuccessful in addressing youth vaping, a failure made clear by the fact that the top 2 youth e-cigarette brands of 2023 are illegal (Elf Bar and Esco Bar, used by 57 percent and 22 percent of youth surveyed, respectively). The FDA has completely failed to enforce bans on these illegal brands with flavors and designs designed specifically to appeal to underage users. The numbers are clear—10 percent of middle school and high school students use tobacco products, and the vast majority of those (7.7 percent) use e-cigarettes.
We also need to engage with the facts of youth nicotine abuse. E-cigarettes are far and away the main method of consumption among underage users, used by 7.7 percent of students in 2023 relative to the 1.5 percent using nicotine pouches. Significantly more effort is needed to crack down on illegal sales, particularly online sales, of these products. If product bans can’t solve youth usage issues, can we really justify the public health costs of denying vital options to smokers?
On this issue, we’re repeatedly offered a false choice between youth nicotine abuse and robust options for adult smokers. This is a purely political characterization of the problem. There are a multitude of actions that can be taken to protect youth from the dangers of nicotine. Significantly stronger enforcement is needed at retailers, both for age verification and to prevent the sale of illegal products.
A strong FDA focused on hands-on enforcement is needed to ensure that nicotine companies operate responsibly and avoid appealing to underage consumers. We also need stronger import controls on these products, with illegal imports often coming from unfriendly nations. These common-sense actions can protect youth without dramatic costs to adult smokers.
The public health conversation around nicotine has been unfortunately politicized, and we’ve lost sight of the most important goal: saving lives. Product bans and public policies targeting reduced-harm products would have material impacts on the options available to adult smokers while doing little to address the underlying factors enabling youth nicotine use in this country. Targeting some of the lowest risk tobacco products available is an unacceptable government overreach, serving political rather than public health goals.

Catharine Dockery is the founder and general partner of Vice Ventures, a private equity firm that invests in good companies operating in superficially “bad” industries.

Vice Ventures is the most active private equity nicotine investor in the U.S. The company approaches the sector through a harm reduction lens.

Prior to founding Vice Ventures, Dockery was a member of Walmart’s mergers and acquisitions team. She also has experience in equity trading and high-yield research.

Through her work on Vice Ventures, Dockery has been recognized in various media including in 2020 as a headline member of the Forbes 30 Under 30, an index that recognizes notable young people in various industries.

Dockery graduated from The Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, where she concentrated in the intersection of neuroscience and finance. She grew up in New York and loves a slightly dirty martini with olives on the side.

February 14, 2024