Category: Featured

Qnovia Raises $17 million for Nebulizer

Photo: Qnovia
Qnovia has raised $17 million to continue development of its RespiRx nicotine-replacement product, reports Richmond Business Sense.
RespiRx is a portable, hand-held nebulizer, a powered medical device that delivers medicine as an inhaled mist and is similar to an inhaler. The device is designed to deliver a nicotine hit more quickly than existing therapies, thus enabling users to better manage withdrawals and, therefore, increase the likelihood of smoking cessation.
Qnovia was founded in 2018 in Los Angeles by Mario Danek as Respira Technologies and rebranded in September. In May, the company appointed former Altria executive Brian Quigley as CEO and Danek as chief technology officer.
The company also moved to Richmond, Virginia, in part because that state offers a more business-friendly environment, according to Quigley, whose tobacco career included a six-year stint as CEO of Altria’s U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. subsidiary.
In addition, many of the partners the company works with are on the East Coast. Qnovia contracts with a Boston manufacturer to make its device and a firm in Pennsylvania to create the medicine administered through the device.
Qnovia will use the newly raised funds to develop a proof of concept for RespiRx as a nicotine-replacement therapy product and move it through an FDA approval process before the anticipated start of human clinical trials in 2023.
The product is expected to hit the market as a prescription treatment. Qnovia is also interested in exploring how RespiRx can be used for asthma, pain management, vaccines and other uses.
October 5, 2022
Scots Urged to Rethink Vape Ad Restrictions

Photo: jazrotorman
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has called on the Scottish government to reconsider its proposal to tighten advertising restrictions on vaping.
The call follows the publication of the outcomes of the government’s consultation on the plan. According to the UKVIA, the feedback from the consultation, which involved the input of individuals, local authorities, public health organizations and the vaping community, clearly shows that there is no majority of support for the recommendations put forward by the government, instead dividing opinions and leaving more questions than answers on the future of vaping regulations.
At the time the consultation went live, the UKVIA warned that the Scottish government’s proposals could derail the country’s 2034 smoke-free ambitions and that its stance is “in denial of the facts,” creating a significant risk to the health of people of Scotland looking to quit smoking as well as more uncertainty around vaping caused by misinformation.”

The proposals that were put forward only sought to further conflate vaping with combustible tobacco products by aligning advertising and promotion rules to existing restrictions on tobacco products.
John Dunne, director general, UKVIA
The UKVIA’s position was echoed by the Scottish Grocer’s Federation, which stated that the Scottish government’s move was unjustified and failed to appreciate the potential benefits of vaping products.
Many proposals put forward by the government generated 50-50 responses, and a number resulted in more respondents disagreeing than agreeing with them. These included proposals to ban in-store promotional displays, to make free distribution and nominal pricing of vaping products an offense and to make sponsorship agreements in respect to vaping products an offense. A higher proportion of respondents indicated that the proposed policy would have a negative impact on individuals (50.5 percent who felt it would versus 36.9 percent who didn’t) and on those with socioeconomic disadvantages (48.6 percent versus 25.5 percent).
“The proposals that were put forward only sought to further conflate vaping with combustible tobacco products by aligning advertising and promotion rules to existing restrictions on tobacco products,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, in a statment.
“Only by working with others, following the evidence and listening to people’s testimonies can we succeed in the goal of tobacco harm reduction.
October 5, 2022
Investor Suit Against RLX Dismissed

Photo: Gorodenkoff
A U.S. federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit brought against RLX Technology by investors who claimed that the company overestimated its financial prospects before its initial public offering, reports Lexis Legal News.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that RLX Technology did not misrepresent or omit known information about the future regulation of e-cigarettes in China.
“[T]he Offering Materials adequately disclosed the possibility of stricter regulations—indeed, the possible outright prohibition—of e-cigarettes in China,” Engelmayer wrote. The judge also found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring a claim because they did not purchase their shares in the IPO.
Founded in 2018, Beijing-based RLX went public on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2021. The offering raised $1.39 billion, according to data provider Dealogic. Its stock price fell sharply after Chinese regulators in March proposed treating vapor products like regular cigarettes.
The value of RLX shares dropped nearly 48 percent from $19.46 per share on March 19 to $10.15 at closing on March 22. As of November, the shares were valued at just over $4.
Certain investors later alleged that RLX in its offering documents made misleading statements about China’s regulations of e-cigarette products that made the company’s value appear to be greater than it is.
It allegedly stated that its products were not subject to regulation and would not fall under China’s Tobacco Monopoly Law and failed to disclose that Chinese regulators were developing new standards for e-cigarettes under which they would be regulated in a manner similar to the way ordinary cigarettes are regulated.
It also allegedly stated that it expected to continue profiting from China’s growing vaping market but allegedly failed to disclose how its profits would be affected by the new Chinese regulations of the vaping industry.
October 5, 2022
22nd Century Partners With Creager Mercantile

Photo: Argus
22nd Century Group has added Creager Mercantile as a distribution partner to expand availability and support for its VLN reduced nicotine content cigarette products in the U.S. state of Colorado.
Operating since 1958, Creager is a well-known wholesale supplier for a wide array of cigarette retailers, including hospital gift shops, gas stations and tobacco shops across the state. The company supports more than 1,000 stores across numerous specialty and retail store brands. Combined with 22nd Century’s previously announced partnership with Eagle Rock Distributing Company, the company now has access to thousands of potential retail sites across the state that could be serviced by its VLN distribution partners.
“We are excited to work with 22nd Century Group to make VLN available to adult smokers in Colorado who are looking for a new way to cut their ties to nicotine,” said Chip Creager, president of Creager Mercantile, in a statement. “Creager supports a diverse array of specialty stores, often advising retailers on the best new products to add to their shelves. We believe that VLN’s uniqueness as the first and only cigarette designed specifically to help smokers smoke less makes it an important and attractive product for adult smokers, and we will be actively working with our retail partners to launch VLN to their stores in the coming months.”

Creager opens up an entire additional channel of specialty retail and tobacco suppliers across the state of Colorado.
John J. Miller, president of 22nd Century’s tobacco business
“Creager opens up an entire additional channel of specialty retail and tobacco suppliers across the state of Colorado, and its direct role in product recommendations and store support make it an ideal partner for 22nd Century’s VLN rollout,” said John J. Miller, president of 22nd Century’s tobacco business. “We look forward to working directly with Creager to place VLN on as many shelves as possible, making our important new product broadly available in as many locations as possible where traditional combustible cigarettes are sold.”
October 5, 2022
Survey Details Challenges to Progress

Gregoire Verdeaux (Photo: PMI)
Despite broad public support for disruptive innovation to address global challenges, issues such as lack of equal access are likely to stall progress, a new international survey released by Philip Morris International reveals. Commissioned by PMI and conducted by independent research agency Povaddo, the survey shows that 89 percent of adults across 14 countries believe that new technologies and innovations can play an important role in improving public health. However, 38 percent feel such innovations are not accessible to all citizens in their countries.
The more than 17,000 survey respondents aged 21 and older believe that the development and adoption of new technologies, innovations and capabilities can enable significant progress against a range of issues over the next 10 years to 20 years, including: encouraging healthier eating habits (78 percent); ensuring quality and affordable healthcare for all (72 percent); reducing smoking rates (65 percent); and eliminating hunger and malnourishment (62 percent).
“Disruptive innovation can drive progress for the world and achieve things few people imagined possible until recently,” said Gregoire Verdeaux, senior vice president of external affairs at PMI, in a statement. “But when the benefits of that disruption are not equally available to all, innovation fails to achieve its full potential. Pragmatic policy frameworks that anticipate innovations are needed so businesses and governments can ensure more equitable outcomes and a lasting impact for all.”
The international survey also highlights the potential of positive disruption in tobacco harm reduction—with 64 percent of respondents stating that new technologies and innovations can play an important role in helping replace cigarettes with less harmful alternatives for those adults who would otherwise continue to smoke.
“Today, with technological advances and scientific validation, we have an unprecedented opportunity to enact a major public health breakthrough—to effectively eradicate smoking faster,” added Verdeaux. “We can make this the tipping point at which millions of adult smokers are given accurate information about and access to innovative smoke-free products that are a much better choice than continued smoking. But for that to happen, all parties—businesses, governments, public health authorities—must work together.”
October 4, 2022
BAT Publishes Low-Carbon Transition Plan

Photo: BAT
BAT has published its Low-Carbon Transition Plan, detailing the actions it will take to reach its climate targets. This includes halving absolute emissions across its value chain by 2030, from a 2020 baseline, and to be net-zero across its value chain by 2050 at the latest.
“We’re proud to take this latest step in our sustainability journey,” said Kingsley Wheaton, BAT’s chief growth officer, in a statement. “By outlining the measures we will take to live up to our net-zero targets through our Low-Carbon Transition Plan, we’re demonstrating our continuing commitment to building ‘A Better Tomorrow.’ As a global company, we know minimizing impacts across our value chain is the right thing to do, as well as making sound business sense. That is why we have set stretching science-based climate-related targets and continue to embed sustainability across our business.”
BAT has committed to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 from a 2020 base year.
According to the CDP, tackling Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions from BAT’s value chain, will be the most critical and challenging for the sector, and it constitutes the majority of BAT’s total carbon footprint.
For these Scope 3 emissions, BAT has committed to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030 from a 2020 base year by: partnering with suppliers, especially those contributing the most emissions, to ensure sustainability progress; progressively transitioning from air to sea freight as a lower carbon mode of transport on the occasions that products go by air; collaborating with farmers on carbon-smart tobacco leaf farming and other projects; and fostering circularity throughout R&D, designing for end-of-life processes and promoting eco-design principles.
October 4, 2022
IEVA Opposes Dutch Flavor Ban

Photo: Wirestock
The Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) has expressed concerns about the Draft Amendment of the Tobacco and Smoking Products Order for regulation of e-cigarette flavors presented by the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports.
According to the statement submitted by the Dutch authorities, the draft amendment intends to ban flavors other than tobacco in e-liquids in order to “reduce the temptation for young people and former smokers to purchase e-cigarettes.” The measure, authorities note, is “justified by the need to protect public health.”
The proposal also suggests that the Netherlands will be more likely to achieve its objective of a smoke-free generation by 2040 if e-cigarettes are rendered less attractive.
According to the IEVA, the proposed flavor ban is neither proportional nor necessary, as it is too strong a measure for the objective it seeks to achieve and fails the EU requirement that member states choose the means that least restricts the free movement of goods.
The IEVA insists that the ban will boost black market activity and jeopardize tens of thousands of jobs while leading to a reduction in government revenues by reducing tax collection.
October 4, 2022
ITG Liable for Florida Settlement Payments

Photo: niroworld
ITG Brands assumed liability for tobacco settlement payments to Florida when it acquired four Reynolds American brands in 2015, a Delaware judge ruled, according to AP. As a result, ITG must compensate Reynolds American Inc. for losses incurred.
ITG bought the Kool, Winston, Salem and Maverick brands in 2014. Before the sale closed, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was making payments under a preexisting settlement agreement to reimburse Florida for smoking-related healthcare costs. After the deal closed, Reynolds stopped making payments for the four brands.
The purchase agreement required that ITG use reasonable best efforts to join the Florida settlement and make payments to the state for the brands it acquired from Reynolds. However, ITG has not joined the settlement agreement or made any payments.
Florida sued Reynolds and ITG, which ended with a judgment requiring Reynolds to continue paying on the settlement agreement unless and until ITG joins the agreement.
“That judgment on Reynolds amounts to over $170 million to date and tens of millions of dollars more each year into perpetuity,” noted Vice Chancellor Lori Will. The “unambiguous terms” of the asset purchase agreement support Reynolds’ arguments that ITG agreed to assume the liability imposed by the Florida judgment and must indemnify Reynolds, she concluded.
October 4, 2022
PMI Won’t Drop Swedish Match Bid: Olczak

Jacek Olczak (Photo: PMI)
Philip Morris International has no intention to drop its bid for Swedish Match, CEO Jacek Olczak told Reuters. In fact, he believes the $16 billion offer is “even more attractive” now given that the global macro-economic environment has changed since the original bid.
In May, PMI offered to buy the Stockholm-based company to help accelerate its move to cigarette alternatives. Swedish Match is best known for its oral tobacco products, including snus and the Zyn tobacco-free nicotine pouches that have taken the U.S. market by storm.
By Swedish law, 90 percent of Swedish Match shareholders need to approve the offer before Oct. 21, but some have come out against the $16 billion offer, saying it undervalues the company.
One of the holdouts, Elliot Management Corp., recently increased its stake in Swedish Match to 7.25 percent from 5.5 percent. The activist investor is believed to be planning to oppose the deal under its current terms. Elliott’s increased stake means the offer will fail if another 2.75 percent of shareholders take a similar view.
Shareholder Framtiden Partnerships, which owns 1 percent of Swedish Match also believes PMI’s offer is too low.
Olczak indicated that if fewer than 90 percent of Swedish Match shareholders approve the bid, PMI could simply become a majority shareholder. He said he regularly met with investors of both companies but declined to comment on whether PMI would increase its offer.
The acceptance period for the offer was initially set to expire on Sept. 30, 2022, but was later extended to Oct. 21, 2022, as the bid awaits approval from the European Commission.
October 4, 2022
PMI Argues Against IQOS Import Ban

Photo: librakv
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) should have consulted more with the Food and Drug Administration before banning IQOS imports, lawyers for Philip Morris International argued before an appeals court panel on Oct. 3, according to Reuters.
In September 2021, the ITC upheld an initial determination from May 2021 that PMI’s IQOS device infringes on two patents owned by BAT subsidiary Reynolds American Inc. (RAI). The agency then instituted an import ban and a cease-and-desist order preventing IQOS consumables and devices from being sold in the U.S.
PMI has challenged the import ban in court, arguing among other things that the ban deprives American smokers of nicotine products that are less unhealthy than cigarettes.
The case is part of a global patent dispute between RAI’s parent company BAT and tobacco giant Altria Group, which separated from PMI in 2008 and is the exclusive distributor of IQOS in the United States.
A North Carolina jury awarded Altria $95 million last month on claims that RAI’s Vuse e-cigarettes infringed its patents. In a separate case over RAI’s Vuse line, PMI won more than $10 million from a Virginia jury.
RAI sued Philip Morris at the ITC in 2020. Its related patent case against PMI in Virginia is on hold.
In July 2020, the FDA granted IQOS modified-risk orders, allowing Altria and PMI to tell consumers that the product generates lower levels of harmful chemicals than traditional cigarettes, among other claims.
October 4, 2022