Tag: Featured

Stories featured at the top of tobaccoreporter.com

Panelists Discuss Diversity and Inclusion

Women make up roughly half of the population, yet they remain underrepresented in many industries, especially among the senior echelons. In the tobacco industry, for example, women account for only 30 percent of the workforce, 21 percent of management and 20 percent of boards.
That represents a missed opportunity, not only for the individuals involved, but also at the corporate level. Research carried out by the FP Analytics Division of the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Group reveals that companies with more women in executive management and on boards outperform those with fewer women in such positions.
Companies with higher shares of women in senior management are not only more profitable, they also are more transparent and have significantly higher environmental, social and governance ratings. According to a 2019 report by the International Labour Organization, enterprises that promote gender diversity are 59 percent more likely to achieve greater creativity, innovation and openness than their more homogenous counterparts.
In the tobacco industry, women are helping drive the much-needed transformation to a more sustainable and inclusive future. Among other things, they are pushing their companies to focus on harm reduction, promoting greener farming practices among tobacco growers and advocating for equal pay.
During TMA’s 2020 virtual conference, an expert panel moderated by Regulation Strategy’s Patricia Kovacevic examined the barriers facing women throughout the employment pipeline and explored possible solutions. Drawing on research and personal experiences, the panelists agreed that the goal should not be to ‘fix’ women but rather to change the way people think about the workforce and leadership.
They also stressed the importance of mentorship, gender pay gap reporting and accountability. And they called on industry leaders to signal that gender equality and inclusivity matters to them—not just because it is ethical but also because it is good for business.
Click here to view this inspiring discussion.
July 6, 2020
Germany to Curb Tobacco Advertising

Photo: Rene Van Den Berg | Dreamstime.com
The German government plans to limit the outdoor advertising of tobacco products, reports DW. Germany is the only EU state that still allows tobacco companies to broadly advertise their products.
Under the new rules, advertising of tobacco products will be authorized only in tobacco shops. In cinemas, commercials for tobacco products may be shown only in films aimed at adult (18+) audiences. Distribution of free tobacco samples will also be prohibited outside of specialist stores.
The restrictions on outdoor advertising will be implemented in stages. They will apply from Jan. 1, 2022, for tobacco products, from Jan. 1, 2023, for tobacco-heating devices and from Jan. 1, 2024, for e-cigarettes. The new rules for tobacco advertising in movie theaters are expected to come into force at the turn of the year.
Anti-smoking activists have long pushed for tighter restrictions on advertising but met with fierce opposition. An attempt to pass similar legislation in 2016 failed to garner the required support. After resisting tighter laws for many years, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU coalition changed its position at the end of 2019.
Tobacco companies expressed concern about the new legislation. Philip Morris International Managing Director Claudia Oeking suggested that, without advertising, it would be difficult to inform smokers about less-harmful products.
The tobacco industry spent an estimated €100 million ($112 million) a year on cinema and outdoor advertising in Germany.
July 6, 2020
Chowdhery to Head INNCO

Samrat Chowdhery
The International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations (INNCO) has appointed Samrat Chowdhery as its president, reports APN News.
A former journalist, Chowdhery has been spearheading tobacco harm reduction activities in India as the founder of the Council for Harm Reduced Alternatives and the director of the Association of Vapers India.
Chowdhery was honored with the “Advocate of the Year” award at the Global Forum for Nicotine in Warsaw in June 2018. In May, Chowdhery spoke to Tobacco Reporter about the vapor business in India.
“While harm reduction is a well-accepted intervention strategy in many fields, from addiction treatment to pandemic response, it is finding uncharacteristic opposition in tobacco use, which kills 8 million people every year,” said Chowdhery. “Our goal is to ensure consumers have a say in the framing of global tobacco policies as they are affected the most by them.”
A global body of 34 national advocacy groups with UN observer status, INNCO represents consumers of low-risk, alternative nicotine products, and promotes tobacco harm reduction at the global stage.
July 5, 2020
Turkey Bans Sale of Hand-Rolled Cigarettes

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Turkey has banned the sale of hand-rolled cigarettes as part of a crackdown on illegal cigarettes. Violators risk prison terms ranging from three to six years, reports Daily Sabah.
In response to rising cigarette prices, Turkish smokers have been turning to roll-your-own cigarettes, which are considerably less expensive than factory-made smokes.
Authorities suspect at least some of these products to have avoided tax; it is difficult to trace the contents of hand-rolled cigarettes that are sold in packs without official brands.
According to media reports, Turkey is now home to more than 25,000 tobacco shops whose earnings mostly depend on the sale of hand-rolled cigarettes and raw tobacco. Illegal online sales of hand-rolled cigarettes also proliferated in recent years, complicating efforts to track down illegal sales.
Studies show hand-rolled cigarettes illegally sold in tobacco shops contain a high level of cadmium and lead and other materials harmful to the health.
Yuksel Denli, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s department of tobacco and alcohol hopes the new regulations will prevent a yearly tax loss of about TRY9.5 billion ($1.4 billion).
Turkey has taken stricter measures against smoking in recent years. The percentage of smokers in the country is 28 percent, according to official figures.
July 5, 2020
UKVIA Wants Tax Parity With NRTs for Vapor

Photo: Steve Woods | Dreamstime.com
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) is calling on the U.K. government to treat vapor products as nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) when calculating value-added tax (VAT).
The call comes amid reports that the Chancellor of the Exchequer considering reducing the VAT rates to stimulate the economy in the wake of the coronavirus.
In a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the UKVIA urges the government to consider a level playing field for NRT and vapor products to help adult smokers who would otherwise not quit smoking switch to vaping.
The letter points to the recent Public Health England report that found that when vapor products were used to quit, either alone or with licensed medication, success rates were comparable to, or higher than, when using NRTs alone.
John Dunne, director at UKVIA, said the vapor sector has been a major retail success story this century and is playing a major role in getting smokers to quit, thereby helping cut the annual cost of healthcare associated with smoking.
“Yet according to research nearly one in 10 smokers do not switch to e-cigarettes because they considered them to cost too much,” he said. “Ensuring that the price of vaping products remains much lower than cigarettes is vitally important in continuing to encourage the some 7 million smokers in the U.K., who otherwise do not quit, to make the switch.”
July 5, 2020
Hawaii Sues Juul for Misleading Marketing

Photo: jessica45 from Pixabay
Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors has filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs seeking penalties, damages and injunctive relief for violations of the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices Law.
The complaint alleges that, for a period of more than five years, the defendants misleadingly marketed Juul e-cigarettes, intending to hook users on the product in the same manner used by tobacco companies in the marketing of cigarettes.
According to the attorney general, the defendants used marketing strategies that targeted teenagers, making Juul products seem desirable, all while falsely understating the nicotine content of the product and its addictiveness.
“In marketing their e-cigarettes to Hawaii’s children, these companies ripped pages directly out of the tobacco company playbook and resurrected Joe Camel for a 21st Century audience,” said Connors. “By misrepresenting nicotine content and by presenting their products as healthy alternatives to cigarettes, they deceived the public and created a new generation of nicotine addicts.”
The state seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and damages along with an injunction requiring the defendants to halt their deceptive advertising practices and fund mitigation programs, including vaping-cessation programs.
July 1, 2020
Altria Veteran Brian Quigley Joins Respira

Photo: Jakub Jirsák | Dreamstime.com
Brian Quigley has joined Respira Technologies as chief operating officer.
Quigley spent 16 years at Altria Group where he was CEO of the smokeless tobacco business from 2012 to 2018.

“We are thrilled to have Brian join the Respira team as we prepare to enter the commercial phase of our company’s growth,” said Mario Danek, Respira’s Founder and CEO. “Brian’s vocal leadership for responsible industry practices and harm reduction combined with his impressive track record of driving business performance in FDA-regulated businesses make him the perfect leader for the next phase of growth for our unique product platforms.”

Respira has developed two proprietary drug delivery platforms designed for safe aerosol-based delivery of drugs to patients and end users, without the creation of harmful byproducts and compounds. According to Respira, the platforms have applications in nicotine-replacement therapies, reduced-harm tobacco products and pharmaceutical drug delivery.

“I am excited to be joining Respira Technologies at this critical moment in the company’s journey,” said Quigley. “I look forward to working with our team, investors and partners as we prepare to commercialize our proprietary drug delivery platforms.”
July 1, 2020
Spain to Toughen Tobacco Law

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The Spanish government is drafting a new tobacco law to replace outdated legislation that has not been amended since 1998, reports EuroWeekly.

Minister of Health Salvador Illa wants to increase taxation and bring taxes for different types of tobacco on an equal footing. For example, cigarettes are currently more heavily taxed than roll-your-own tobacco.

To avoid hoarding, the price increases will be made without notice.

The Health Department also intends to extend smoke-free areas, and smoking could be banned in private cars, especially if there are children onboard.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance wants to tighten the regulatory framework to meet World Health Organization and EU standards—in particular, the regulations governing the import or sale of cigarettes and electronic devices.

In addition, there are plans to increase sanctions on importers to reduce illegal trafficking of tobacco.

The aim is to have a draft ready by September so that the changes can be presented to the Congress of Deputies before the end of the year.

Smoking currently generates €9 billion ($10.09 billion) in tobacco taxes for the Spanish treasury each year.
June 30, 2020
Progress Toward Smoke-Free Objective

Photo: Hanyyyy | Dreamstime.com
Philip Morris International today published its first integrated report, a comprehensive overview of the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and its progress toward delivering a smoke-free future—including the company’s ambition to switch more than 40 million adult smokers to its smoke-free products by 2025, with half of the total to come from non-OECD countries.

“Since we announced our smoke-free commitment in 2016, we have made enormous progress in terms of organizational capabilities, the integration of sustainability into every aspect of our transformation, and our business,” said Andre Calantzopoulos, CEO of PMI.

Among other things, the integrated report shows that PMI directed 98 percent of total R&D expenditure and 71 percent of total commercial expenditure toward smoke-free products in 2019.

PMI’s smoke-free product net revenues reached 18.7 percent of total net revenues in 2019 compared to 2.7 percent in 2016. In 2019, net revenues from smoke-free products exceeded 50 percent of total net revenues in four markets.

PMI’s smoke-free product shipment volume increased to approximately 60 billion units in 2019, up from 7.7 billion in 2016. The company’s combustible product shipment volume in 2019 declined to 732 billion units, down from 845 billion in 2016, partly reflecting the impact of adult smokers switching to PMI’s smoke-free products.

Since announcing its smoke-free vision in 2016, PMI has delisted more than 600 cigarette stock-keeping units (SKUs) globally while broadening its portfolio of heated-tobacco units to more than 400 SKUs.

At year-end 2019, there were an estimated 9.7 million users worldwide who have stopped smoking and switched to PMI’s heat-not-burn smoke-free product IQOS compared to 6.6 million in 2018, according to the report.

On the ESG front, the integrated report highlights PMI’s youth access-prevention programs, initiatives to mitigate environmental risks and impacts across its value chain and efforts to improve the wellbeing of is farming community.

“Our integrated report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of what PMI is about combined with a holistic set of metrics that go beyond our financial disclosures, covering our business transformation as well as environmental, social and governance topics,” said Huub Savelkouls, chief sustainability officer at PMI.
June 30, 2020
KT&G Researcher Recognized

KT&G Senior Researcher Kim Ik-jung (Photo: KT&G)
A KT&G researcher has received the Prime Minister Award in recognition of his contribution to industrial development in South Korea.

KT&G Senior Researcher Kim Ik-jung was recognized for his development of a fat-soluble liquid encapsulation technology previously held only by prominent pharmaceutical manufacturers in Japan and Europe, and for securing patent rights in Korea and overseas.

The technology enabled KT&G to localize the production of tobacco capsules, for which it previously relied on imports from Japan. The technology could potentially also be used in other industries, including medicines and foods.

The award was presented June 24 on South Korea’s 55th Invention Day, an event organized by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and hosted by the Korea Invention Promotion Association.
June 30, 2020