Tobacco Asia

30 tobaccoasia PRODUCT NEWS 产品新闻 Global Report: Combustible Tobacco Still Main Product In 2021, cigarettes and combustible tobacco were still the predominant product, making up around 95% of retail sales volume across the 15 largest tobacco companies, according to the second edition of the Tobacco Transfor- mation Index. The index, a Foundation for a Smoke-Free World initiative, ranks the world's 15 largest tobacco companies on their efforts to reduce the harm of their products. Swedish Match ranked first in the 2022 Index, with Philip Morris International, Altria, and British American Tobacco in second, third, and fourth places, respectively. Index findings revealed that tobacco companies fail to invest in harm reduction in low- and middle-income countries, with the vast majority of sales for their reduced risk products (RRPs) concentrated in markets with the highest disposable income. Notably, RRPs are banned in a number of countries around the world. Findings from a new survey of American attitudes to e-cigarettes, HTP, and snus conducted from August 28-Sep- tember 1, 2022 included in the Democracy Institute's Global Progress Report on Tobacco Harm Reduction showed that most Americans are anti-prohibitionist on RRPs. When asked whether RRPs should be legal, 59% said yes; only 35% said no. When asked if vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes, 47% answered no. When asked if heated tobacco products are safer than smoking cigarettes, 54% answered no; only 34% said yes. Cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products are still the main products for tobacco companies. Americans are evenly divided (45% yes to 43% no) on whether vaping products should be regulated like tobacco products and on whether vaping products should be taxed the same as tobacco products (43% yes to 42% no). Sales Surge for Flavored Disposable E-Cigs The US Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) second report on e-cigarette sales and advertising nationwide shows sales of flavored disposable e-cigarettes and menthol e-cigarette cartridges surging dramatically in 2020. FTC has been reporting on tobacco sales annually since 1967 and smokeless tobacco sales since 1987. Last year, the agency expanded its studies of industry and published its first-ever report on e-cigarettes. This year's e-cigarette report covers sales and advertising data from 2019 and 2020, a period in which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published an enforcement policy banning the sale of flavored e-cigarette cartridges other than menthol. Overall, the report found that total e-cigarette sales, which had increased from US$304.2 million in 2015 to US$2.046 billion in 2018, grew to US$2.703 billion in 2019, but then declined to US$2.24 billion in 2020. The FTC report notes that the 2020 decline may not represent the market given major industry shifts. Publicly available sources indicate that the sale of disposable e-cigarettes – which are exempt from FDA's 2020 policy – increased substantially, with "other" flavored disposable products making up 77.6% of all disposables sold in December 2020. FTC's data did not show an increase in disposable sales. However, FTC's data likely does not represent an accurate picture of the market for disposable e-cigarettes. Only two of the five companies submitting data for 2019-20 continued to market disposable e-cigarettes in 2020, and those that did provided more limited offerings. The report also found that the sale of the remaining non-FDA- banned flavored cartridge, menthol, increased significantly, to 63.5% of all cartridges sold in 2020. JUUL Hits Back at FDA Juul Labs filed a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency's refusal to release documents supporting the agency's order prohibiting the business from selling its e-cigarettes on the US market. In a complaint submitted to a federal court in Washington, D.C., Juul accused FDA of wrongfully withholding scientific materials that are "central" to understanding the rationale behind the June 23 sales ban by using the "widely abused" deliberative process privilege. The materials, according to Juul, would demonstrate whether FDA carried out the legally required balancing of the public health benefits and hazards of its devices, including claims that they help smokers stop, and whether the agency's justification was scientifically sound. Juul claimed that by concealing the majority of the "scientific disciplin- ary reviews" that formed the basis of the sales ban, FDA violated the federal Freedom of Information Act. CTP Director's Updated Stance on Vapes Three months in his new role as the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) tobacco chief seem to have given Brian King a changed perspective on vapes. King, known to be a vocal opponent of vapes, took over as director of FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) in July. In a recent AP interview, when asked about the fact that many adults think e-cigarettes are as dangerous as traditional cigarettes, King said, "I'm fully aware of the misperceptions that are out there and aren't consistent with the known science. We do know that e-cigarettes – as a general class – have markedly less risk than a combustible cigarette product. That said, I think it's very critical that we inform any commu- nication campaigns using science and evidence. It has to be very carefully thought out to ensure that we're maximizing impact and avoiding unintended consequences." Asked about vapes' potential to help reduce adult smoking, King said there was "a lot of really important science and innovations that have occurred in the industry in recent years",

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