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  • Medicago Urged to Ditch Philip Morris

    Medicago Urged to Ditch Philip Morris

    Photo: evannovostro

    A coalition of health groups have called on the Canadian government to replace Philip Morris International as a major shareholder in Medicago.

    In late February, Health Canada authorized Medicago’s Convifenz Covid-19 vaccine, which is manufactured with the help of tobacco plants. Soon after, the World Health Organization signaled it was unlikely to grant the vaccine emergency approval due to Medicago’s ties to the tobacco industry. PMI owns about a third of the biopharmaceutical company.

    “There is a simple pathway to get this vaccine approved. Our governments should stand up to Philip Morris,” said Flory Doucas, co-director of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control.

    “Instead of asking the WHO to contravene its own tobacco control treaty, which was ratified by Canada and 181 other countries, the federal Minister of Health and his Quebec counterpart should focus their energies on convincing the tobacco giant to withdraw as a shareholder of Medicago.”

    According to the health groups, Medicago has already signaled that it is seeking alternative investors. The Canadian and Quebec governments, they say, should help facilitate such a transition.

    The health groups cite Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which obliges parties to ensure that their policies are protected “from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.”

    “Guidelines for implementing this obligation make clear that ‘the tobacco industry should not be a partner in any initiative linked to setting or implementing public health policies, given that its interests are in direct conflict with the goals of public health,’” the organizations wrote in a press release. “Parties are directed that they ‘should not endorse, support, form partnerships with or participate in activities of the tobacco industry described as socially responsible.’”

  • VPR Settles Auto-Draw Technology Case

    VPR Settles Auto-Draw Technology Case

    Illustration: VPR Brands

    XL Vape, VGOD and Saltnic have agreed to pay VPR brands $155,000 to settle patent-infringement litigation related to VPR’s auto-draw technology, according to a press release. As part of the deal, VPR brands has granted each of the companies a non-exclusive license to practice the invention set forth in the disputed intellectual property.

    Dating from 2009, U.S. patent 8,205,622 covers electronic cigarette products containing an electric airflow sensor, including a sensor comprised of a diaphragm microphone. The sensor turns the battery on and off, and covers most auto-draw, button less e-cigarettes, cig-a-likes, pod devices and vaporizers using an airflow sensor rather than a button. The technology is covered under electronic cigarette utility patent

    VPR Brands has started to identify and notify over 50 of the leading companies using its auto-draw technology. XL Vape, VGOD and Saltnic were prioritized based on their sales volumes and popularity.

    According to VPR Brands, most nicotine vaping devices sold in the U.S. today utilize an auto-draw/button-less technology. The company is investigating all button-less vape devices within the nicotine, CBD, and cannabis space that initiate vaporization from the user’s airflow inhalation as they would be suspect of infringement.

    The company says it may also seek a buyer for its patent in the future, citing the example of Ruyan, which in August 2013 sold its e-cigarette patent to Imperial Tobacco group for $75 million.

    VPR’s settlement with XL Vape, VGOD and Saltnic follows earlier settlements with Nepa 2 Wholesale and PHD Marketing.

  • PMI Scaling Down Russian Operations

    PMI Scaling Down Russian Operations

    Photo: Matvey Salivanchuk

    Philip Morris International today announced the concrete steps it has taken to suspend planned investments and scale down its manufacturing operations in Russia, following that country’s military invasion of Ukraine.

    PMI said it has discontinued a number of its cigarette products offered in the market and is reducing its manufacturing activities accordingly. It has also suspended marketing activities in the country and canceled all product launches planned for 2022 in Russia, including the launch of its flagship heated tobacco product IQOS Iluma, originally planned for March 2022. In addition, PMI has canceled its plans to manufacture more than 20 billion Terea sticks (for IQOS Iluma) in Russia and the related ongoing investment of $150 million.

    PMI’s board of directors and senior executives are working on options to exit the Russian market in an orderly manner, in the context of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing regulatory and operating environment.

    “Our focus and all our efforts over the last four weeks have been to ensure the safety and security of our Ukrainian colleagues. We stand in solidarity with the innocent men, women and children who are suffering,” said PMI CEO Jacek Olczak in a statement. “We employ more than 3,200 people in Russia. We continue to support them, including paying their salaries, and we will continue to fulfil our legal obligations. We will continue to make decisions with their safety and security as a priority.”

    Russia accounted for almost 10 percent PMI’s total shipment volumes and around 6 percent of PMI’s net revenues in 2021.

  • FDA Marketing Orders for Logic Technology

    FDA Marketing Orders for Logic Technology

    Photo: Logic

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized several tobacco-flavored ENDS products from Logic Technology Development under the Logic Vapeleaf, Logic Power and Logic Pro brands, including devices.

    Logic Technology is the vape product arm of Japan Tobacco International.

    Based on the Logic’s product applications, the agency concluded that the likely benefit for adult smokers who cease or significantly reduce their cigarette consumption outweighs the risk to youth, provided that the company follows postmarketing requirements to reduce youth access and youth exposure to their marketing.

    At the same time, the agency issued marketing denial orders to Logic for multiple other ENDS products, which the company must now remove from the market. Applications for additional Logic products, including menthol, remain under FDA review.

    We know that there is a demand among adult smokers to use e-cigarette products to try to switch from more harmful combusted cigarettes, but millions of youth are using these products and getting addicted to nicotine. The balance of these issues was considered by the agency’s career scientists when evaluating the potential marketing of e-cigarette products.

    Robert M. Califf, FDA Commissioner

    The FDA’s review of the applications for the products authorized today determined that the marketing of the tobacco-flavored products and associated components is appropriate for the protection of the public health.

    Specifically, available data showed that current tobacco users who used these tobacco-flavored products were more likely to significantly decrease their use of combusted cigarettes and that those who don’t smoke are unlikely to start using these products.

    Most study subjects decreased the number of combusted cigarettes they smoked each day by greater than 80 percent, from an average of 13-16 cigarettes per day at screening to 1-2 by day 59. The data also showed that the products produce fewer or lower levels of some toxins, like carbon monoxide, than combustible cigarettes and the products’ abuse liability, or their ability to encourage continued tobacco use, addiction or dependence, was lower than that of combusted cigarettes.

    “We know that there is a demand among adult smokers to use e-cigarette products to try to switch from more harmful combusted cigarettes, but millions of youth are using these products and getting addicted to nicotine,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf in a statement.

    “The balance of these issues was considered by the agency’s career scientists when evaluating the potential marketing of e-cigarette products. They have made great progress and I know they will use the best available evidence with the most robust methods to ensure that products that continue to be marketed are appropriate for the protection of the public health.”

    “We take the quality of our products extremely seriously, along with the way they are marketed and sold, and we are proud that we have received marketing orders from FDA for our Logic products to remain on retailers’ shelves,” said Corrado Mautone, president of Logic, in a statement.

    “By receiving FDA marketing orders now, Logic can remain a reliable partner for retailers going forward,” said Mautone.

    Logic, based in Teaneck, New Jersey, is a part of the JT Group of Companies. JTI is a leading international tobacco and vaping company with operations in more than 130 countries. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, JTI employs over 50,000 people and was awarded Global Top Employer for the eighth consecutive year.

    The FDA has taken action on approximately 99 percent of the nearly 6.7 million ENDS products submitted for premarket authorization, including issuing marketing denial orders for more than 1 million ENDS products.

    The agency says it is close to making additional decisions on applications for popular ENDS products that account for a large part of the market. The continued marketing of these products has the potential to have a substantial public health impact—either positively or negatively—as they hold an overall large market share and are used by a lot of people.

  • South Korea Smoking Rate Hits All-Time Low

    South Korea Smoking Rate Hits All-Time Low

    Photo: Dzmitry

    The smoking rate of South Koreans aged 19 and up fell below 20 percent for the first time in 2020, reports the Yonhap News Agency, citing a new Statistics Korea study.

    The smoking rate of Korean adults declined to a record low of 19.2 percent in 2020, down 1 percentage point from 20.2 percent a year earlier.

    The smoking rate fell 7.7 percentage points from 26.9 percent in 2010.

    The results cover those who have consumed more than five packs of cigarettes over their lifetime and are currently smoking.

    In 2020, the smoking rate among Korean men aged 19 and older reached a record low of 33 percent, down from 34.7 percent a year earlier.

    The corresponding rate for Korean women aged 19 and older came to 5.5 percent, down from 5.9 percent in 2019.

    Experts attributed the decline in smoking to growing public awareness of health and the government’s anti-smoking drive.

    In January 2015, the government raised the price of cigarettes by 80 percent to KRW4,500 ($3.70) per pack from KRW2,500.

  • Dubai Businessman Buys Mostar Tobacco Factory

    Dubai Businessman Buys Mostar Tobacco Factory

    Photo: Freesurf

    Jassim Abdullah Ibrahim Alhuwai is buying the Mostar Tobacco Factory in Bosnia and Herzegovina after making the best offer at public sale, reports the Sarajevo Times.

    Alhuwai will pay BAM6 million ($3.4 million) for the factory. He has already paid BAM10,000 as a deposit and has been given a deadline of April 22 to pay the remainder.

    “I hope that the investor from Dubai will pay the money by the appointed deadline and that our agony will end, that there will be the bridging of our service periods and that some money will be paid to us,” former Mostar worker Aida Kajtaz said.

    This was not the first attempt to sell the factory. Previously, Mirsad Rahimic, a Swiss entrepreneur and Mostar native, attempted to buy the factory, but there were a number of complications that arose during the purchase process.

    Production at the factory ended in 2007, but workers campaigned to restart manufacturing.  

    Mostar Tobacco Factory complex has an estimated value of BAM21 million, but due to lawsuits and debts, the Mostar Municipal Court declared that the complex should have been sold for BAM3 million.

  • Kenya: Push to End Tobacco Farming

    Kenya: Push to End Tobacco Farming

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Kenya’s Ministry of Health along with the World Health Organization and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched an initiative to end tobacco farming in the country, reports Xinhuanet.

    The initiative is called the Tobacco-Free Farms project, and it will support farmers’ shift to alternative crops, such as legumes, that are less harmful to human health and the environment. It was launched in Migori, which is located in western Kenya.

    The goal is a gradual phasing out of tobacco farming at the smallholder level, replacing tobacco with crops that will boost food security and help achieve health-related sustainable development goals.

    According to Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, tobacco has worsened the burden of respiratory diseases in the country, harmed vital ecosystems like watersheds, escalated gender inequality, rural poverty, deforestation and soil degradation.

    Ministry of Health data shows that more than 6,000 Kenyans die annually from tobacco-related diseases, and 2.7 million adults and 220,000 children use tobacco products daily.

  • Study: Most E-Cigarette Research Flawed

    Study: Most E-Cigarette Research Flawed

    Photo: Roman Samokhin

    Errors are disturbingly common in e-cigarette research, resulting in misinformation and distortion of scientific truth, according to a new study.

    Under the guidance of Cother Hajat of the United Arab Emirates University and Riccardo Polosa, founder of the Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) at the University of Catania, a team of international researchers examined the 24 most frequently cited vaping studies published in medical journals.

    The researchers found almost all of the examined studies to be methodologically flawed. Among other shortcomings, the studies lacked a clear hypothesis, used inadequate methodology, failed to collect data relevant to the study objectives and did not correct for obvious confounding factors.

    “Most of the included studies utilized inappropriate study design and did not address the research question that they set out to answer. In our paper, we offer practical recommendations that can massively improve the quality and rigor [of] future research in the field of tobacco harm reduction,” said Hajat.

    Riccardo Polosa

    “Systematic reiteration of the same errors that result in uninformative science is the new pandemic,” said Polosa. “I’m astounded that such low-quality studies have made it through editorial review in prestigious scientific journals. The credibility of tobacco control scientists and their research is on the line.”

    The findings are concerning, according to the academics, because without methodologically valid scientific research, it is impossible to generate balanced and accurate information for the adoption of more effective tobacco control policies and healthier lifestyles. “The dissemination of inaccurate information about combustion-free alternatives in the news media contributes to public skepticism and uncertainty, particularly among smokers,” the center wrote in a press release. “Many smokers may be discouraged from switching to less harmful nicotine-delivery products as a result of this.”

    This investigator-initiated study was sponsored by ECLAT, a spin-off of the University of Catania, with the help of a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, which in turn is backed by Philip Morris International.

  • Zimbabwe: Contractors Succumb to Competition

    Zimbabwe: Contractors Succumb to Competition

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Nine Zimbabwean tobacco contractors have collapsed in the past year due to cutthroat competition, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

    “There is a lot of competition in the contracting space in terms of pricing,” TIMB CEO Meanwell Gudu told The Zimbabwe Independent. “If a contractor does not pay the correct price, that contractor will not get tobacco. Last year, we had 42 companies, and now, we have 33. Some of them have fallen by the wayside because they could not compete.”

    Once characterized by auction sales, Zimbabwe’s tobacco trade is now dominated by contract growing, with up to 96 percent of leaf tobacco being produced under agreements between buyers and farmers.

    More than half of the $748 million earned by Zimbabwe’s golden leaf farmers in 2020 was pocketed by contractors, mainly big foreign corporations that repatriate the hard currency back to their countries, according to critics.

    Last week, Gudu also said the TIMB was set to crack the whip on tobacco “side marketers”—buyers who illegally purchase leaf from farmers contracted with other organizations—with stiff penalties that will see offenders serving up to six month jail terms.

  • E-LiquiTech: Synthetic Nicotine in Stock

    E-LiquiTech: Synthetic Nicotine in Stock

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    E-LiquiTech says it has large quantities of Zanoprima’s SyNic in stock to help companies introduce new products to the U.S. market ahead of the mid-April deadline imposed by a new law.

    On March 15, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law a spending bill that includes a provision to regulate products containing synthetic nicotine the same as products containing tobacco-derived nicotine. This means that companies selling products containing synthetic nicotine will be required to file a premarket tobacco product application in order to keep their product(s) on the market. The deadline for filing such applications is less than 60 days away.

    According to E-LiquiTech, SyNic is the same chemical composition of (S)-nicotine as natural tobacco-derived nicotine but without any of the impurities. Specifically, SyNic achieves a purity profile of 99.9 percent and is devoid of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, heavy metals and other impurities that are present in tobacco-derived nicotine.

    SyNic is manufactured through a patented process in a cGMP facility approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and meets or exceeds the U.S. Pharmacopeia monograph, making SyNic a 1-to-1 replacement for tobacco-derived nicotine and enabling manufacturers to use it as a CAS number substitute, according to E-LiquiTech.

    The company says all of the scientific data that is applicable to tobacco-derived nicotine is equally applicable to SyNic. The manufacturing process is replicable from batch to batch, and every batch of SyNic is fully trackable and traceable.

    Earlier this month, Zanoprima filed a patent lawsuit against Hangsen International in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to enforce Zanoprima’s patented process for manufacturing (S)-nicotine, demonstrating its long-term commitment to the U.S. market.