Tag: British American Tobacco

BAT Appoints Chief Medical Officer

Senthil Vel
BAT has appointed Senthil Vel as its new chief medical officer.
Vel will play a central role in the research and development programs that support the company’s commitment to reducing the health impact of its business by offering consumers a range of alternative reduced risk tobacco and nicotine products.
Based at the BAT’s research & development hub in Southampton, Vel will be responsible for overall medical governance, ensuring robust medical processes and best practice are applied to all aspects of BAT’s work. He will help deliver robust evidence-generation programs designed to provide further scientific evidence that supports BAT’s new categories products.
“Sen is a highly experienced, much admired physician, with a proven track record of positively impacting national and global health policy, making him a natural addition to our leadership team,” said David O’Reilly, director, scientific research at BAT, in a statement.
Vel has more than two decades of international medical, pharmaceutical and device experience. Most recently, he served as chief medical officer of Bio Products Laboratory. He has led large medical teams across EMEA, APAC, and the US, working for large and mid-sized pharmaceutical and medical device companies, including Boston Scientific and Novo Nordisk, in clinical research, regulatory, safety, and medical affairs.
His experience includes designing non-clinical and clinical strategies to meet the regulatory requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, the U.K. Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and other major agencies worldwide. He has extensive experience in non-clinical and Phase I to Phase IV clinical studies including health outcomes programs for pharmaceuticals and devices. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Physicians, the medical body for advancing the science and practice of pharmaceutical medicine for the benefit of the public.
Vel qualified in medicine and trained in surgery under the Royal College of Surgeons of England and holds specialist registration in pharmaceutical medicine. He holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

February 17, 2022
BAT Announces Preliminary Results

Photo: BAT

British American Tobacco reported revenue of £25.68 billion ($34.87 billion) in 2021, down 0.4 percent from 2020. Revenue from “New Categories” jumped 42.4 percent to £2.05 billion. On an adjusted basis, revenues increased 6.9 percent while revenues from new categories were up by 50.9 percent. Profit from operations was up 2.7 percent to £10.23 billion or £11.15 billion (up 5.2 percent) on an adjusted basis.
BAT CEO Jack Bowles described 2021 as a “pivotal year.” “We accelerated New Category revenue, with growth of over 50 percent and reached a total of 18.3 million consumers–up 4.8 million—of our non-combustible products,” he said in a statement.
“Putting ESG at the heart of our strategy and corporate purpose is delivering sustainable growth, encouraging more consumers to transition to reduced risk products and reducing the health impact of our business. We are also on track to achieve our other ESG targets, including carbon neutrality from our operations by 2030.”
The company is on track to deliver £5 billion of revenue from New Categories by 2025, said Bowles, adding that BAT is also developing opportunities beyond nicotine.
Alongside its 2021 preliminary results, BAT also announced a program to buy back up to £2 billion of ordinary shares. The company said it may purchase up to 229,400,000 shares between Feb. 14 and Dec. 21, 2022.

February 11, 2022
Btomorrow Ventures Invests in Philter Labs

Photos: Philter Labs

Btomorrow Ventures (BTV) will make a follow-on investment into Philter Labs, after leading the round for the Preferred Series A.
Philter Labs supplies micro-filtration systems for the cannabis and nicotine markets with its patented Particulate Capture Technologies (PCT) for standalone handheld filters and next-generation vaping devices that removes particulates, airborne contaminants and odor from secondhand smoke and exhalant.
“We are delighted to have Btomorrow Ventures continued confidence and financial support,” said Christos Nicolaidis, CEO of Philter Labs, in a statement. “We will use the funds to support new product launches in the first quarter of 2022 along with furthering our development of exciting new products that incorporate our patented filtration technology to be launched later this year.”
Philter Labs says it has a robust new product pipeline, with several products planned to launch this year and next. All of these products are designed for ease of consumer use in eliminating secondhand smoke, with a focus on collective social responsibility for more conscious consumption.
BTV is the corporate ventures unit of BAT. Established early in 2020, BTV invests in high growth businesses, from seed funding to those looking for further, series B investment.
Tobacco Reporter profiled Philter Labs in its September 2020 issue.

February 8, 2022
Tobacco Firms Recognized as Top Employers

BAT, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands have been named as top employers by the Top Employers Institute.
“Being named as a Global Top Employer for the fifth year in a row is a recognition of BAT’s inclusive, engaging culture and innovative working environment,” said Hae In Kim, director of talent, culture and inclusion at BAT, in a statement. “We are continually striving to maintain a workplace where employees feel empowered and well supported, and we are delighted this has been recognized.
“It is an honor to once again be certified by Top Employers Institute,” said Howard Parks, JTI’s senior vice president of people and culture, in a press note. “Our people are at the heart of everything we do, which is why we aim to offer them the best possible working environment. Giving our over 40,000 colleagues the opportunity to grow and providing them with the optimal conditions and support to fulfil their potential is of paramount importance to us.”
“I am delighted that Imperial has been recognized as a Top Employer for another year,” said Alison Clarke, Imperial’s chief people and culture officer, in a statement. “Imperial Brands is a great place to work, grow and develop, and it’s particularly pleasing that—in these challenging times when we can’t always congregate in the way we would like—our people have shown real resilience and embraced new ways of engaging to create an even better place to work.”
The Top Employer certification process is conducted annually by the Top Employers Institute, an independent organization that studies the employee offerings of major employers around the world. Certification recognizes employers that provide best-in-class employment practices, allowing employees to develop themselves personally and professionally while driving business results. Participating companies undergo a rigorous assessment process, which includes an extensive review of employer practices. Several validation sessions are held where evidence of these practices is provided, and an independent audit of the findings is also carried out.

January 20, 2022
BAT Launches Virtual R&D Visitor Experience

Image: BAT

BAT has created a virtual R&D visitor experience, an online tour of its global research and development hub in Southampton, U.K., that allows people to explore its cutting-edge science and innovation.
BAT says the experience builds on the company’s open and transparent approach to the science underpinning its reduced-risk product portfolio and beyond nicotine activities. The company regularly welcomes visitors in person to its global R&D hub, with more than 3,500 people viewing the facilities firsthand since 2011. However, with travel significantly reduced, the virtual experience allows people from across the globe to access and understand BAT’s scientific research and tobacco harm reduction activities and gain perspectives and insights from experts.
“At BAT, R&D is fundamental to what we do,” said David O’Reilly, director of scientific research at BAT, in a statement. “Our focus on science and research has enabled us to make significant progress in developing and evolving our New Category products, which are rigorously tested and scientifically substantiated as reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes. Our R&D is based around consumer preferences as well as applying evolving science and innovation to our products. This allows us to offer a range of enjoyable reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes while ensuring we maintain very high safety and quality standards.
“Our new R&D virtual visitor experience demonstrates the breadth of science we are undertaking and the robust scientific framework we use to evaluate and support the role our products play in delivering tobacco harm reduction.”
With 360-degree lab tours, animations, videos, scientist profiles, podcasts and more, the R&D virtual visitor experience is the one-stop hub for those looking to find out about BAT’s science. The tour illuminates BAT’s purpose to build “A Better Tomorrow” and mission to reduce the health impact of its business. BAT invests almost £350 million [$477.18 million] a year to find innovative ways to reduce its effects on public health and aims to have 50 million consumers of its noncombustible products by 2030.

January 19, 2022
Daily Beast: BAT Backing Vape Group

Photo: freshidea

British American Tobacco is the driving force behind the World Vapers Alliance (WVA), a pro-vaping group presenting itself as a grassroots initiative of anti-smoking initiatives, according to the Daily Beast.
According to the investigation, BAT sought to use the WVA to organize individuals to pressure government officials, including members of the European parliament, to roll back regulations on tobacco products such as bans on flavored products, health warnings and increased taxes.
BAT went to great lengths to conceal its involvement with the World Vapers’ Alliance, according to the investigation. Yet, sources and internal documents reviewed as part of the investigation revealed that BAT “has played a central and hands-on role in orchestrating, directing and funding the World Vapers’ Alliance.”
Anti-smoking groups were aghast. “Tobacco companies like British American Tobacco claim that they are changed, responsible companies working to reduce the enormous harm caused by their products. But their actions tell a different story and show that they continue to use the same deceptive tactics they have always used, including front groups, to fight public health policies and protect their sales and profits,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement.
Writing for Vaping360, Jim McDonald said BAT’s involvement with WVA was no secret among vaping advocates, “which is probably a major reason why the organization only has 20,000 individual members, despite extensive social media efforts,” he wrote.
According to McDonald, many vapers tend to mistrust and resent involvement in vaping issues by the tobacco industry, partly because companies like BAT subsidiary Reynolds American Inc. have gone out of their way to eliminate the competition posed by independent vaping businesses.
McDonald cites a 2014 RAI comment to the FDA, “essentially offering the agency a blue-print for destroying the open-system vaping industry.”

January 12, 2022
BAT Creates Plant-Based Technology Firm

Photo: BAT

BAT today announced the launch of KBio Holdings to accelerate the research, development and production of novel treatments. KBio will leverage the plant-based technology capabilities of BAT and Kentucky BioProcessing, BAT’s U.S. plant biologics organization.
KBio will explore new opportunities to develop its plant-based production system, which has the potential to offer greater speed, scale-up opportunity and thermostability. The new company will focus on delivering treatments for rare and infectious diseases by realizing and expanding the potential of both the plant-based technology platform as well as its existing clinical and preclinical vaccines and antibody pipeline.
KBio will look to form innovative R&D collaborations and financing aimed at expanding its pipeline and future portfolio, with an ambition of financial self-sufficiency.
Supporting the company’s future plans, a standalone operational structure for KBio is being established. This includes building a new executive leadership team led by Patrick Doyle as the CEO of KBio. Doyle brings more than 20 years of experience leading innovative biotech companies.
“I am excited by the opportunity to build on the significant accomplishments made by BAT and KBP,” said Doyle in a statement. “I am confident in the potential of KBio’s powerful plant-based platform, capabilities and emerging early-stage pipeline. To date, the technology has demonstrated its ability to produce novel antibody and vaccine candidates with high purity at a fraction of the time and cost of current technologies. The speed and efficiency demonstrated by the KBio platform has significant potential. This could enable us to progress to clinical studies faster than industry norms in the hope of delivering treatment solutions more quickly.”
“Science and innovation are fundamental to BAT and delivering on our purpose of building ‘A Better Tomorrow,’” said David O’Reilly, BAT’s director of scientific research. “We recognize the potential of our innovative plant-based technology and have established KBio to maximize that potential. We are excited to see what the future holds.”

January 7, 2022