Tobacco.org

CN Creative Raises Series A Funding to Develop First Medically Approved Electronic Inhaler Nicotine Replacement Therapy for Smoking Cessation 

CN Creative, Ltd. (CNC), a healthcare company providing innovative and sustainable solutions to reduce smoking and smoking-related illnesses, today announced it has raised a Series A financing round led by Advent Life Sciences. The financing raised 2 million pounds, equivalent to approximately US $3.1 million. CNC intends to use the investment to continue and finalise development of its Nicadex™ electronic inhaler nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) product for use as part of medically supervised smoking cessation programmes. . . .

Nicadex is a hand-held device that delivers purified nicotine to the user through the vaporisation of a pharmaceutical-grade solution of nicotine. A rechargeable lithium battery powers the vaporiser that instantly turns the nicotine solution into a vapour that is inhaled by the user. Many users report that the sensation of using the Nicadex device is similar to smoking, but the vapour contains no smoke and none of the carbon monoxide, tar or thousands of toxic impurities that make smoking tobacco products so damaging to health. In addition, since there is no smoke, there are no smoke by-products that can cause "second-hand" harm to others.

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What 2012 Has in Store for Star Scientific (CIGX) 

As I discussed last month, Star Scientific put in solid gains in 2011 as the company got out in front of a shift toward cigarette alternatives. But increasingly, tobacco giants Altria (NYSE: MO ) and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI ) have made pushes into the smokeless tobacco realm, threatening to take away any moat that Star Scientific may have started to build. Can the small company make good on its full potential and bring an even bigger payday for shareholders in 2012? Below, I'll take a closer look at what people expect from Star Scientific and its rivals. . . .

Even with those patents, tobacco will continue to be competitive, and Star Scientific will keep facing potential threats from Reynolds and Altria domestically. As international regulation starts to have a bigger impact on Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM ) and British American Tobacco (AMEX: BTI ) , Star may have new opportunities there as well. But even with some things in its favor, Star will still need to fight hard to keep an edge and repeat 2011's strong stock performance.

If you'd rather just skip the tobacco industry entirely, let us point you to an alternative. In its latest special report, you can learn the name of The Motley Fool's top stock for 2012.

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LETTER: Tobacco: Poses a health risk in all forms 

In response to the recent letter defending smokeless tobacco use ("All tobacco products are not equally harmful," Jan. 24), the risk of tobacco trumps all others. Fifty cigarettes a day increases the risk of end-stage lung disease and lung cancer 150-fold. This is orders of magnitude worse than other modifiable risk factors like weight, aerobic capacity blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose level.

Even if smokeless tobacco is responsible for only 2 percent of tobacco deaths, we cannot accept thousands of deaths instead of over 450,000 deaths a year in America. This huge total is several times larger than letter writer Brad Rodu mentioned. He forgot to include heart attack and stroke deaths, which makes his position suspect.

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LETTER: RADU: All tobacco is not equally harmful  

Your recent editorial endorsed a tax increase on tobacco products other than cigarettes, but it was based on some sweeping statements that are not scientifically accurate or credible ("The 'other' tobacco tax," Jan 20).

You stated: "Tobacco is linked to an estimated 6,861 deaths in Maryland each year … the American Lung Association reports." The Lung Association actually reported that smoking caused these deaths. The distinction is critical because your case for raising OTP taxes is based on the presumption that all tobacco products are equally risky: "Experts say all forms of tobacco are considered harmful to human health no matter whether they are smoked, puffed, chewed or otherwise ingested. Smokeless tobacco, for instance, is often linked to oral and esophageal cancer."

In fact, smokeless tobacco use is 98 percent safer than smoking.

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Addiction to nicotine trumps even lung cancer  

Unfortunately, harm reduction approaches have yet to be widely accepted for those addicted to cigarettes. A new study by the American Cancer Society illustrates the depth of this addiction and the difficulty some smokers face even when a diagnosis of cancer makes it imperative that they quit. One woman, a smoker whose cancerous lung was removed, explained in an MSNBC interview the draw of cigarettes despite the litany of cessation methods she tried. We can't help but think that tobacco harm reduction products could have been a great help to this woman, as well as to many people like her.

The new study, published in the journal Cancer, looked at nearly 2,500 lung cancer patients . . .

"Wouldn't it be nice," ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan asks, "if these patients had a spectrum of smokeless products, which are both effective and at least 90 percent less harmful than cigarettes, to choose from?" ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees. "It's absurd that we're recognizing the benefits of harm reduction for IV drug addicts, but we won't acknowledge how much it would help people who can't quit smoking even after a cancer diagnosis."

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Mints, Gum, Candy — or Tobacco?  

Brightly colored packages for products labeled "fresh," "wintergreen" and "java" just aren't what they seem, youth tobacco-control advocate Judy Hou says.

"They're these little packages that you can stick in your pocket," says Hou. "They look like Tic Tacs."

In fact, they're dissolvable tobacco products, and the subject of Food and Drug Administration hearings this week on whether these new smokeless products and the marketing used to promote them appeal to kids and pose a public health threat.

In testimony before the FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, Hou, a 17-year-old tobacco-control advocate from Midlothian, Va., gave officials part of the answer: Dissolvables and other new smokeless tobacco products attract and deceive youth.

Hou is a member of YStreet, a youth organization that fights tobacco use and promotes ways teenagers can lead healthier lives.

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LEAMAN: Tobacco Lozenges: A Trap for Kids?  

Rightly, I think, health experts and pediatricians are worried that dissolvable tobacco products pose a significant risk to kids and teens, who could eat them like candy and get hooked on nicotine earlier in life. I mean, what do you expect when you make nicotine that much easier (and tastier) to get down?

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• New smokeless products could threaten health gains 

Big Tobacco is preparing to open up a new front in the nicotine wars -- with toothpicks, dissolvable strips and breath mints.

Speaking at a teleconference Wednesday to unveil the 10th annual State of Tobacco Control report, representatives of the American Lung Association said they are concerned about new products tobacco companies are test-marketing in select cities. The products include nicotine-infused "sticks," strips and "orbs" developed by R.J. Reynolds, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration records.

They're "a new breed of tobacco products," Erika Sward, the association's director of national advocacy, said.

The products are designed not to help smokers quit, but to help them satisfy their craving for nicotine when they're in workplaces, restaurants and other public places that prohibit smoking, officials said.

Reynolds is testing the products in places such as Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Ore.; Denver and Indianapolis.

As the advocates held their news conference, the FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee was beginning a closed, three-day hearing in Rockville, Md., to discuss the health implications of so-called "dissolvable" tobacco.

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New forms of tobacco on market discussed at CODE meeting  

With more people being aware of the dangers of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, tobacco companies have adapted by adding new products or more eye appealing designed packages, Knight explained.

There are tobacco products that are in the form of sticks that dissolve in the users mouth, dissolvable strips and dissolvable "orbs" that are designed like Tic-Tacs. There are also pouches sold that are placed in the mouth that allows the user to absorb the nicotine without having to spit like traditional smokeless tobacco.

Not only are there more ways for nicotine to be absorbed the packaging is becoming more pleasing to the eye, taking a bubble gum wrapper type of look, Knight said.

Knight said tobacco companies have taken to college campuses and sponsored parties with a parting gift being a pack of cigarettes.

"They are also marketing to women and teen girls portraying smoking as glamorous," Knight said. Now, even in a certain brand, a purse pack can be found with 20 small cigarettes. Nicotine continues to be highly addictive and is known as one of the hardest addictions to break, Knight explained.

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Dissolvable Tobacco Products Draw FDA Scrutiny  

The Food and Drug Administration has a gathered a group of scientists and other experts to study flavored melt-in-your-mouth tobacco products.

The panel, meeting this week, will hear from two camps of stop-smoking advocates: those who worry that dissolvables are a gateway to smoking and others who say they help people kick the habit.

Gregory Conley, a 24-year-old law student at Rutgers University, pops a dissolvable during class or while he's studying.

"You just put it in your mouth and hold it as if you were holding a piece of straw between your teeth," he says.

They deliver a slight nicotine tingle that Conley says helps curb cravings.

"I was never really going to stop," he says. "I had tried with the traditional methods, and found them completely unhelpful: the patch and the gum and the lozenge." . . .

Companies can't market dissolvables as a stop-smoking aid. Some health officials and a group of U.S. senators have called them "nicotine candy" and want the FDA to tighten the rules. Conley says he hopes they won't.

"The public health people are saying, 'Oh, we need to wait, we need to still get more data,'" he says. "Every day and every year that they wait to tell the truth about the relative risks of different tobacco products, more people are dying."

Conley is so convinced, he volunteers with the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association and testified during the FDA's meetings this week.

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Potential Role of Natural Alkaloids in Combatting Memory Loss 

Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX) - A study released in the January 9th issue of the Journal of Neurology suggests that nicotine patches may help individuals with early memory loss. Dr. Paul Newhouse, a professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, led a study which showed that six months of nicotine patch treatment among patients who had mild cognitive impairment - often a precursor to Alzheimer's disease - had a 46% improvement in their long-term memory for their age. The patient group who received a patch without nicotine showed a 26% decline in memory. Both patient groups were treated for six months.

Nicotine is only one of a family of related compounds known as alkaloids. Anatabine, another compound in the same family, has been actively pursued by Star Scientific for a variety of uses, including as a supporter for memory loss. Star Scientific subsidiary Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals also has a number of patents pending that relate to the administration of anatabine for treatment of a variety of neurological conditions, among other things.

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Star Scientific and Reynolds American Poised to Benefit from E-Cigarette Scrutiny 

With the start of a New Year, the tobacco industry is once again looking for alternative revenue drivers to cigarettes, which continue to fall out of favor with the general public. The Paragon Report examines investing opportunities in the tobacco industry and provides equity research on Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX) and Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE: RAI). Access to the full company reports can be found at:

One of the latest reasons for the downturn of cigarettes had been the rising popularity of the electronic cigarette (e-cigarette). However, a new study finds electronic, or e-cigarettes, may not be as safe as advertised. In a new study in the medical journal "Chest," found participants who used the electronic cigarettes showed restricted airways and inflammation after only five minutes.

The study did not examine what the long-term effects of using e-cigarettes could be, and the lead researcher called for more studies into this.

The Paragon Report provides investors with an excellent first step in their due diligence by providing daily trading ideas, and consolidating the public information available on them. For more investment research on the tobacco industry register with us free at www.paragonreport.com and get exclusive access to our numerous stock reports and industry newsletters.

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Summary Memorandum from David Ashley, Ph.D. (PDF) 

Thank you for your participation in the upcoming Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) Meeting, January 18-20, 2011, regarding dissolvable tobacco products. The information presented at the meeting will aid the Committee in producing the required report and recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the issue of the nature and impact of the use of dissolvable tobacco products on the public health, including such use among children. In its review and consideration of recommendations, TPSAC shall address (1) the risks and benefits to the population as a whole including users and nonusers of tobacco products; (2) the increased or decreased likelihood that existing users of tobacco products will stop using such products; and (3) the increased or decreased likelihood that those who do not use tobacco products will start using such products. At this meeting, the Committee will hear and discuss presentations from the FDA, RTI, and various experts on dissolvable tobacco products.

Presentations will be given on the following topics:



Use of Swedish oral tobacco and related health effects



Health effects of long term use of therapeutic nicotine replacement therapy

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January 18-20, 2012: TPSAC Meeting Background Materials 

DISCLAIMER: The information in these materials is not a formal dissemination of information by FDA and does not represent agency position or policy. The information is being provided to TPSAC to aid the committee in its evaluation of the issues and questions referred to the committee. The FDA will not issue a final determination on the issues at hand until input from the advisory committee process has been considered and all reviews have been finalized. The final determination may be affected by issues not discussed at the advisory committee meeting.

Coversheet

Summary Memorandum from David Ashley, Ph.D.

Brief Summary of Relevant Smoke-Free Laws in Test Market Cities

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LETTER: What’s a Smoker to Do?  

I was alarmed at your front-page report of a study suggesting that nicotine replacement therapy might not work ("Nicotine Gum and Skin Patch Face New Doubt," Jan. 10). That news could dissuade countless smokers from trying to quit.

After 25 years of heavy smoking, I quit after one try using nicotine gum, and I have been smoke-free for six years. I recommend it to anyone trying to quit.

It is common sense that substituting gum for smoke as the delivery mechanism for nicotine is an effective aid in quitting, and of course infinitely safer. Now, when a replacement therapy for nicotine gum is developed, I can try to quit that, too.

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