24
TOBACCO BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
and smokeless tobacco products.
…The FDA sent a
warning letter
to
Alaa Farah of Al’s Tobacco, LLC in Little
Rock, Arkansas, saying his smokeless
tobacco products offered on his website,
are misbranded
since they do not carry any required
warning label statements.
…The FDA sent a
warning letter
to
Swedish Match North America
, citing
that its General snus tobacco products
offered at its “General Original Lounge
Adult Only Smokeless Tobacco Sampling
Facility” at the Kentucky Speedway on
June 28, 2012 were misbranded under
the
Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
.
The company failed to include the required
warning statements for smokeless tobacco
product advertisements in the “Jet/Set/Go!
With General Snus” promotion at a Dallas
Maxim
Splash Pool Party. The FDAalso sent
warning letters to support@smokinforfree.
com and support@get-cheap-cigarettes.
com, stating that bothcompanies’ cigarettes
offered on their websites were adulterated
under the
Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic
Act
, as amended by the
Family Smoking
Prevention
and
T
obacco Control Act
, as
they were promoted with descriptors like
“Light”
and
“Super Light,” without an FDA
order in effect that permits such promotion.
…At the 18th round of negotiations
of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement, which took place in
Malaysia July 15-24, the U.S. was
expected to push for the inclusion of
an Investor-State Dispute Settlement
clause, which would allow foreign
companies to challenge decisions
that may be unfavorable to their
investments in other countries, and
could potentially open the door
for multinationals to begin a third
international dispute on Australia’s
plain packaging law, when Australia
is already fighting disputes on the
PP legislation in the World Trade
Organization and through the Hong
Kong Bilateral Investment Treaty.
…In a letter to newly confirmed U.S.
Trade Representative (USTR) Michael
Froman, the Campaign for Tobacco-
Free Kids, American Heart Association,
American Lung Association and
American Academy of Pediatrics asked
the USTR to propose language at the
July 15-24 Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) negotiations to enable TPP
nations to have their
tobacco control
measures
exempted from possible
TPP constraints.
…Prof. Michael Siegel of Boston
University’s School of Public Health
said that
Lorillard’s April 2012
acquisition of blu eCigs
along with
Altria and Reynolds American’s recent
announcements that they are entering
the electronic cigarette market means
that all three major tobacco companies
in the U.S. are “now officially in the
business of harm reduction,” adding
that he believes the category will
benefit in the long run by their entry
given that “Big Tobacco” can devote
a substantial amount of resources,
previously unavailable, to market
e-cigarettes, raise public awareness
about the product, and conduct
“important research into the safety and
effectiveness of electronic cigarettes
that can help inform the development
of rational public policy regarding these
products.”
…According toWells Fargo’s analysis,
U.S. retail/online
sales of e-cigs
are
expected to approach $2 billion by year’s
end in 2013 and $10 billion by 2017, with
e-cigarette margins nearing the mid-40
percent range by 2017 compared with
current conventional cigarette margins
of about 40 percent, as the LO, RAI and
MO entries potentially catapult the
category’s growth and drive the total
conventional cigarette and e-cig profit
pool by 7 percent compounded annual
growth over the next decade.
…Scottsdale, Arizona-based e-cigarette
company
NJOY’s CEO Craig Weiss
said
that the firm raised $75 million in financing
from investors, including Napster founder
and entrepreneur Sean Parker and
Homewood Capital founder Douglas
Teitelbaum who will join NJOY’s Board of
Directors, and added that the funds will be
used for marketing, clinical trials, R&D, and
global expansion.
…
PC
Magazine
contributor
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin said that the
e-cigarette category is “poised to
explode,” and suggests that “big
tobacco companies” invest in a
vast infrastructure to capture their
“e-waste”
to prevent landfills from
piling up with this refuse.
…
Advertising Age
reports that
major cigarette companies in the
U.S., whose
media spending
declined
by 97 percent through 2011 since
peaking at $932 million in 1985, are
poised to once again become one of
the largest spenders as their entry into
the “burgeoning” e-cigarette market
presents them with the prospect of
returning to certain media, including
television. However, this opportunity
could be short-lived given potential
regulation of the category by the
FDA, which Reynolds American CEO
Daniel Delen believes is “imminent.”
…Florida-based
White
Cloud
Electronic Cigarettes
launched two
new menthol-flavored e-cigarettes,
Iced Berry and Zero K, bringing the
total number of flavors the company
offers to 19.
…Atlanta, Georgia-based e-cigarette
company FIN Branding Group will
launch nationally on cable channels a
new TV commercial titled “Rewrite
the Rules” that aims to illustrate
that “
vaping
” is acceptable in public
places like bars, restaurants, bowling
alleys and offices where regular
cigarettes are prohibited.
TB
TMA REPORT
ON OTHER Matters…
