Global indaba touts technology as tobacco saviour

As more than 150 000 local tobacco farmers prepare for the 2020/2021 cropping season, the future of both tobacco and nicotine products is currently being discussed at a global forum – the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) – which is being held virtually for the first time in its 13-year history owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

The four-day indaba started on Monday.

Local tobacco farmers pocketed US$480 million from the just-ended marketing season after delivering 181 million kilogrammes of the cash crop.

However, there are growing fears that as the regulatory noose on tobacco smoking continues to tighten globally, this might affect demand and prices of the “golden leaf”.

This has put the viability of growing the crop into question.

In October last year, US president Donald Trump signed legislation amending the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which, among other interventions, raises the minimum age of sale of tobacco products – cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, pipe tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) including e-cigarettes and e-liquids – from 18 years to 21 years.

The US has 45 million of the world’s more than one billion smokers.

The anti-tobacco lobby has been a global phenomenon, with various jurisdictions doubling down on measures to promote public health.

But new innovations such as heated tobacco products (HTPs), which seek to substitute harmful cigarette smoke, are raising hopes that tobacco might continue to be a viable crop.

Hiroya Kumamaru, vice president of the AOI Universal Hospital in Japan, where smoking is the biggest cause of disease and death, told the GTNF that more than 24 percent of smokers had switched to HTPs in the Asian country since their launch in 2014.

This had also resulted in a 30 percent reduction in cigarette sales.

“Available data in Japan showed that HTPs have resulted in a decline cigarette sales; they do not attract former or never-smokers,” he said.

”HTPs can be an alternative by contributing harm-reduction of smoking to those who cannot quit smoking, and yet possibly could be a step towards cessation. . .

“Overall tobacco sales volume (cigarettes plus HTPs) is still decreasing, while sales of heated tobacco is increasing, indicating that switching from cigarettes to HTPs is happening very quickly.”

On April 30, 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised marketing of US industrial giant Philip Morris International (PMI)’s IQOS tobacco heating system as a modified risk tobacco product (MRTP)

Essentially, IQOS is an electronic device that heats tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper to generate a nicotine-filled aerosol referred to as heat-not-burn or heated tobacco product.

The authorisation came after 43 months of evaluation.

It is believed that authorisation of HTPs is appropriate for the protection of public health because they produce fewer or lower levels of some toxins than combusted cigarettes.

In a virtual panel discussion at the GTNF on Modified Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs) and Communicating Relative Risk, PMI’s vice president strategic and scientific communications, Ms Moira Gilchrist, said the new innovations might be of potential benefit worldwide.

“First and foremost, this should be, and is, about adult smokers in the United States, and they are nearly 40 million of them. I think for us, the MRTP orders allowing exposure reduction – communication to those people is of vital importance, because not only do they have now access to better alternatives to continuing to smoke, but we also have information we believe can help guide their choices,” she said.

“Second of all, I think for us as a company, it’s a really, really important and historical milestone. I think FDA decision on IQOS was an important validation that the path that we have set upon for many, many years. . . is a viable path . . . We believe that not only has IQOS has the potential to benefit the public health in the United States, but basically wherever adult smokers exist, we want to bring this product as an alternative.”

In a second quarter report for the May to August period this year, PMI said there was “a strong performance by its product IQOS”, with an increase of 24 percent of the volume when compared to the same quarter last year.

“The report estimates that 15,4 million people are using IQOS. Also, the authorisation of the US FDA to market IQOS as a Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP), presents a historical milestone, since the product is the first electronic
nicotine device to be authorised in this category. The product represents a better alternative for adults who continue smoking,” said the report.

The company indicated that it was also likely to have adequate inventories of the product despite the disruptions caused by the coronavirus.

This year’s GTNF is running under the theme “Sustainable Change through Innovation and Regulation.”

The four-day event is spanning five continents.-herald.cl.zw