Category: Featured

Shares Sold in Imperial’s Former Russia Unit

Photo: Imperial Brands
Russian businessman Sergei Katsiev has acquired a 15 percent stake in International Tobacco Group, the former Russian subsidiary of Imperial Brands, reports Interfax, citing data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE).
In March, Imperial Brands announced that it was suspending operations in Russia, including production at its factory in Volgograd, sales and marketing, in response to Russia’s military assault on Ukraine. In April, the company said it had transferred its business in Russia to local investors.
Earlier this year, Imperial Tobacco Sales and Marketing and Imperial Tobacco Volga were renamed International Tobacco Group and International Tobacco Group Volga, respectively.
According to the USRLE, Nikolai Tyaka owns 75 percent of International Tobacco Group and International Tobacco Group Volga.
Following the Feb. 24 invasion, international cigarette manufacturers announced they would end their operations in Russia, but retreating from such a major market is easier said than done. Tobacco companies have had to carefully navigate shifting regulations and avoid missteps that could prompt the government to seize the business, for example—all the while trying to protect employees from becoming targets for arrest.
Tax payments by the leading international cigarette manufacturers have provided the Russian government with at least $7.25 billion in additional income since President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to attack Ukraine, according to an analysis of Russian Treasury figures conducted by The Telegraph.
Because Russia and Ukraine were relatively small markets for Imperial Brands, representing around 2 percent of net revenues and 0.5 percent of adjusted operating profit in 2021, the company may have found it easier to extract itself from Russia than some of its larger competitors.
November 9, 2022
Voedsel Banned From Contracting Farmers

The TIMB headquarters in Harare
(Photo: Taco Tuinstra)
Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has banned Voedsel Tobacco International from contracting farmers this season after failing to pay farmers for two years, reports The Herald.
“Voedsel won’t be participating this year because they owe huge amounts of money to tobacco growers,” an unnamed official told The Herald.
Voedsel Director Tennyson Hwandi blamed “white-owned companies” for working against indigenous tobacco merchants.
“Big tobacco companies are being threatened by Black-owned tobacco companies, and Voedsel being one of the major players has been a target. They are determined to see us closing down,” he was quoted as saying, adding that Voedsel has already been giving its farmers inputs for the upcoming growing season.
A TIMB official said that if Voedsel was indeed issuing inputs, this would be illegal because the regulator had not licensed the company.
With buying facilities in tobacco-growing regions, including Rusape, Marondera and Karoi, Voedsel was among the major financiers of tobacco contract schemes.
Zimbabwe sold 212.7 million kg of tobacco at a value of USD650.3 million during the 2022 tobacco marketing season, compared with 211.1 million kg worth USD589.6 during the previous buying period.
November 8, 2022
STOP Adds to Industry Allies Database

Photo: courtyardpix
STOP, a tobacco industry watchdog, has added 25 organizations from 12 countries to its Industry Allies database. Organizations on the list are categorized as front groups, “astroturf” groups or third parties that promote the tobacco industry’s agenda while appearing to be independent.
“This update provides further evidence that the tobacco industry uses different types of organizations to build influence. They range from traditional allies like farmers’ groups and retailers’ associations, whose members have a vested interest in the sale of the industry’s products, to groups promoting the industry’s electronic products,” said Phil Chamberlain, deputy director of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, a partner in STOP, in a statement. “The common factor is shared interest, with tobacco companies as founders, funders, members or sources of revenue.”
STOP has added 135 groups across 33 countries since the database launched in 2019. The update includes organizations that focus on countries with some of the highest rates of smoking and largest populations, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. Colombia is newly represented on the list.
Many of the newly added groups promote the industry’s newer nicotine and tobacco products; four are associations of grocers, news agents and convenience stores that sell the industry’s products; several position themselves as representing the interests of tobacco farmers, and three are Chambers of Commerce or business groups, according to STOP.
November 8, 2022
22nd Century Reports Third-Quarter Results
22nd Century Group reported net sales of $19.4 million for the third quarter of 2022, up 148 percent over that posted in the comparable 2021 period. The increase was due to increased contract manufacturing volumes as well as the addition of GVB Biopharma revenue for the full third quarter.
Revenue from tobacco-related products was $11.5 million, an increase of 47.7 percent from 2021, primarily driven by volume increases in the number of cartons sold, price increases and favorable mix for filtered cigar and cigarettes (including export cigarettes).
Revenue from hemp/cannabis-related products was $7.8 million compared to $0 in the prior year third quarter.
During the quarter, the company expanded distribution of its VLN reduced-nicotine cigarettes, accelerating sales in Colorado and Illinois while launching the brand in the “Four Corners” states—Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
“The past few months have demonstrated tremendous commercial progress in 22nd Century’s reduced-nicotine tobacco and hemp/cannabis businesses,” said 22nd Century CEO James A. Mish in a statement. “Our VLN product launch has expanded from the exceptional pilot in Chicago to now five states. We plan to expand that base to as many as 18 states over the next 12 months.
“Doing so would give us access to more than half the $80 billion U.S. tobacco market and position us in most, if not all, of the states that have enacted MRTP (modified-risk tobacco product) excise tax provisions favorable to our unique product authorization. Even just a 1 percent share, which we view as eminently achievable based on our pilot results, would be transformative to our revenue line.
“The FDA is also continuing to advance its interests in transformative menthol and reduced-nicotine policies, and 22nd Century is positioned at the forefront of this opportunity with the only MRTP authorized 95 percent reduced-nicotine combustible cigarette and years of clinical research documenting the benefits of our products.”
November 8, 2022
Turkiye to Crack Down on Illicit Trade

Photo: Dzmitry
Turkiye plans to crack down on illicit tobacco production and consumption, which cost the state an estimated TRY30 billion ($1.61 billion) in lost tax revenue, reports Daily Sabah.
A draft bill set to be discussed at Parliament will bring prison terms of up to five years for people selling tobacco without licenses from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Illicit product is estimated to account for 20 percent of Turkey’s tobacco market. In 2021, some 35 billion cigarettes containing contraband tobacco were sold. This year, consumption is projected to reach about 50 billion.
The majority of illicit trade comprises illegally produced, unlicensed tobacco sales, such as hand-rolled cigarettes, representing around 27 percent of Turkish cigarette consumption. Counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes, by contrast, constitute about 3 percent of the market.
Authorities seized 4.7 million packages of smuggled cigarettes, 273 tons of tobacco products and 329,000 cigars during the first nine months of 2022, preventing a loss of TRY625 million in tobacco taxes, according to police data.
November 8, 2022
Vapers Starting Younger: Study

Photo: eldarnurkovic
Although the prevalence of teen vaping has declined in recent years, those who do vape are starting younger and using e-cigarettes more intensely, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in collaboration with Stanton A. Glantz, a retired professor from the University of California at San Francisco.
In the analysis of data from the annual National Youth Tobacco Survey, a nationally representative survey of middle school and high school students in grades 6–12, researchers found that e-cigarette prevalence among youth peaked in 2019 then declined, but e-cigarette initiation age dropped between 2014 and 2021, and intensity of use and addiction increased after the introduction of protonated nicotine products.
Protonated nicotine is created by adding acid to the e-cigarette liquid, which makes the nicotine easier to inhale. Since Juul pioneered protonated nicotine, it has been widely adopted by other e-cigarette companies.
Age at first use of e-cigarettes fell by 1.9 months per year while age at first use of cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco did not change significantly. By 2017, e-cigarettes became the most common first tobacco product used.
E-cigarette nicotine addiction, measured as the odds of use within five minutes of waking, an indicator of addiction, increased over time. By 2019, more youth e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within five minutes of waking than for cigarettes and all other products combined. The percent of sole e-cigarette users who used e-cigarettes within five minutes of waking was around 1 percent through 2017, but then it increased every year, reaching 10.3 percent youth using their first e-cigarette within five minutes of waking by 2021.
Median e-cigarette use also increased from three days to five days per month in 2014–2018 to six days to nine days per month in 2019–2020 and 10 days to 19 days per month in 2021.
The recently released 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey data show that 2.55 million adolescents use e-cigarettes and 27.6 percent of adolescents use e-cigarettes daily. The comparable numbers reported in this paper for 2021 were 2.1 million and 24.7 percent.
“The increasing intensity of use of modern e-cigarettes highlights the clinical need to address youth addiction to these new high-nicotine products over the course of many clinical encounters,” said senior author Jonathan P. Winickoff, a pediatrician at MGH and a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, in a press note.
“In addition, stronger regulation including state and local comprehensive bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products, such as voting YES on Proposition 31 on California’s November ballot, should be implemented,” said first author Glantz.
November 8, 2022
Advocacy Group Suggests FDA Reforms
Photo: Araki Illustrations
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has “significantly and substantially failed” to fulfill its congressional mandate to protect the public health, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) told the Reagan-Udall Foundation in a letter.
The Reagan-Udall Foundation is reviewing the FDA Center Tobacco Products’ (CTP’s) policies and procedures following months of criticism over its handling of e-cigarette reviews. As part of its assessment, the foundation offered stakeholders an opportunity to share their input.
In its comment, the ATR suggested seven reforms to improve the agency’s performance:
FDA should introduce cross-disciplinary expert analysis factoring input from fields like psychology and behavioral economics to increase public awareness and engagement in the decision-making process.
FDA must provide an easy, streamlined PMTA pathway as initially promised.
FDA’s PMTA process should focus on product safety and individual risk, not behavioral and population assessments that are better gathered by a singular postmarket surveillance team.
FDA should be in regular, proactive contact with all PMTA applicants as opposed to merely issuing marketing denial orders after year-long periods of silence.
FDA should consider implementing product standards to assist in the streamlining process and look also to countries such as the United Kingdom as a model for a regulatory system that works.
FDA must urgently act to combat significant public misinformation that it admits exists in the community and is a barrier to smoking cessation.
FDA must reform its approach to youth risk behavior. FDA should accept that youth can benefit from harm reduction and properly evaluate the consequences of reduced vape access for both adults and youth.
Tim Andrews, ATR’s director of consumer issues, wrote that the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s review could help the agency better the PMTA review process.
“[The PMTA] process has created impossible administrative burdens on applicants,” he said. “When processes and requirements were changed, FDA failed to notify applicants and is alleged to have applied a new and different standard to certain applicants. FDA’s failures are structural. Our submission is cognizant of that and emphasizes that these issues can’t be solved with increased funding, especially not through user fees on small vape manufacturers.”
November 8, 2022
Pakistan Leaf Exports Up Nearly 75 Percent

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Pakistan’s leaf tobacco exports jumped 74.66 percent during the first three months of fiscal year 2022–2023 as compared to the corresponding period of last year, reports the Daily Times, citing figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
During the quarter, the nation exported tobacco worth $13.8 million. In terms of volume, tobacco exports also rose by 93.35 percent from 3,096 metric tons to 5,986 metric tons, the data revealed.
Meanwhile, the year-on-year basis for tobacco export increased by 29.39 percent during September as compared to the same month of last year.
The tobacco exports in September 2022 were valued at $3.5 million against the export of $2.71 million in September 2021, the PBS data revealed.
On a month-on-month basis, leaf exports in September were down 34.96 percent from $5.381 million in August 2022.
November 7, 2022
Gold Leaf Tobacco’s Assets Remain Frozen

Photo: somemeans
A South African court on Nov. 7 postponed a hearing about the frozen assets of Gold Leaf Tobacco until Jan. 30. 2023, reports News24.
At the end of August, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) secured a provisional preservation order in court against Gold Leaf and its directors Simon Rudland and Ebrahim Adamjee. The tax agency suspects Gold Leaf and its directors underpaid tax and hidden assets.
The preservation order prevents the tobacco group and its directors from selling any assets while the tax agency investigates the case.
Gold Leaf and Rudland denied any wrongdoing.
According to the provisional preservation order, the initial return date for the case was Nov. 7. At this hearing, the respondents get to argue why the order should not be made permanent.
Gold Leaf holds the distribution rights for brands such as Voyager, RG, Chicago, Sahawi, Sharp and Savannah.
November 7, 2022
22nd Century Welcomes Reduced Nicotine Study

Photo: 22nd Century Group
22nd Century Group welcomed the results of a recent study that found switching to reduced-nicotine content (RNC) cigarettes “reduces toxicant exposure and increases smoking cessation without worsening mental health among smokers with mood or anxiety disorders.”
According to 22nd Century, the study conclusively dispelled a common misconception that RNC’s may exacerbate general health and mental health problems. The study also concluded that a national nicotine reduction policy for cigarettes will likely result in reduced nicotine absorption and likely result in greater smoking cessation from smokers with mood and anxiety disorders.
The study examined adult smokers with a current or lifetime anxiety or unipolar mood disorder. The participants were randomly assigned to smoke conventional cigarettes or 22nd Century’s RNC research cigarettes. Adult smokers who were assigned to smoke 22nd Century’s RNC cigarettes had significantly lower cigarette consumption, lower cigarette dependence, lower plasma cotinine (metabolite of nicotine) and lower exhaled carbon monoxide than smokers assigned to the conventional group.
At the end of the study, despite having selected only participants not intending to stop smoking, those randomized to the group using 22nd Century’s RNC cigarettes were more likely to have quit smoking.
“Study after study, reduced-nicotine cigarettes are shown to be beneficial to adult smokers. The combination of reduced-nicotine cigarettes and a proposed nicotine standard have the potential to forever change the trajectory of public health by helping adult smokers smoke less,” said James A. Mish, chief executive officer of 22nd Century Group, in a statement.
“Based on last week’s comments from FDA’s [U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s] Center for Tobacco Products Director, Dr. Brian King, we are confident the FDA will use its existing authority to advance both a reduced nicotine policy and a menthol ban. These policies and 22nd Century’s reduced-nicotine cigarettes are expected to save millions of lives and increase the chances that current smokers quit. Our VLN reduced-nicotine content cigarettes are backed by clear science and evidence, which support FDA’s proposed product standards, and are the only FDA-authorized combustible product able to meet the stringent reduced nicotine levels determined by the FDA to be ‘minimally or nonaddictive.’”
November 7, 2022