E-Cigarettes May Be as Effective as Patch to Help Smokers Quit

Taking a drag from an e-cigarette may be just as safe and effective as slapping on a nicotine patch for smokers struggling to quit, according to the first physician-run trial to compare the two products.

About one in 20 people who used either patches or e-cigarettes managed to quit completely six months after the test started, according to research published today in The Lancet. Meanwhile, users of electronic cigarettes -- battery-powered devices that deliver vaporized nicotine -- were more likely to have cut their use of the real thing in half even if they didn’t quit entirely.

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E-cigarettes have taken Europe and the U.S. by storm. In France, there are more than 1 million regular users, according to a government commissioned report published in May. Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The 657-person trial wasn’t big enough to draw definite conclusions about whether e-cigarettes are better than nicotine patches, researchers said. Still, the results should be a signal to the regulators in the U.S. and Europe now weighing restrictions on e-cigarettes, Peter Hajek, a professor of clinical psychology at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said in a comment published alongside the results.

“Health professionals will now hopefully feel easier about recommending e-cigarettes to smokers, or at least condoning their use,” Hajek wrote.

Sales Growth

If European and U.S. regulators treat e-cigarettes as medical devices, yet leave cigarettes on general sale, tobacco makers “will retain their market monopoly, and we will never learn whether e-cigarettes would replace traditional cigarettes if allowed to continue evolving and competing with smoked tobacco on even terms,” he wrote.

The results will also be presented today at the European Respiratory Society’s annual meeting in Barcelona.

E-cigarettes have taken Europe and the U.S. by storm. In France, there are more than 1 million regular users, according to a government-commissioned report published in May. Sales worldwide will probably approach $2 billion by the end of this year and top $10 billion by 2017, according to a forecast by Wells Fargo & Co.

That success has brought scrutiny. The French government said it planned to ban e-cigarettes from public places. The U.K. has moved to treat them as medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may announce potential restrictions as soon as next month.

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International Vapor Group CEO, Nick Molina, Interviewed About E-Cigarette Industry

International Vapor Group CEO, Nick Molina, Interviewed About E-Cigarette Industry on Bloomberg TV

Carina Ost

MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - August 28, 2013) - International Vapor Group (IVG), a leader in the electronic cigarette industry, announced today that CEO, Nick Molina, appeared on Bloomberg TV's "Money Moves" with Deirdre Bolton. The show focuses on innovative companies and IVG leads through manufacturing, distributing and marketing some of the biggest names of e-cigarettes, including South Beach Smoke, EverSmoke, NutriCigs, and new retail concept VaporZone.

Bolton began the interview by highlighting the explosive growth of the e-cigarette industry thanks to celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and companies like International Vapor Group.

The first question was focused on how Molina is preparing for FDA regulations. Molina noted that all International Vapor Group's brands, including South Beach Smoke, were well prepared and actually embraced FDA regulations. "We are diversifying our distribution through distributors, authorized retailers and our own brick and mortar stores in the confines that may be set by the regulators," said Molina. Molina reminded Bolton that the main issue was in age verification to prevent selling to minors and that is something IVG takes very seriously.

The company CEO was careful to note that e-cigarettes were a more convenient alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes and can tout things like no smoke and no ash.

When Bolton pressed on competition in the industry and how Molina is protecting his brands' position, he responded that innovation is key. The CEO added, "When you look at e-liquid, we are one of the few companies that manufacture it in the U.S. Most of my competitors manufacture their e-juice in China." This 100% USA made liquid nicotine juice is a huge differentiator across all International Vapor Group brands including: South Beach Smoke, NutriCigs, EverSmoke and a new retail concept called VaporZone.

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E-cigarette advertising could be coming to...

E-cigarette advertising could be coming to television

By Tom De Poto/The Star-Ledger 
on August 27, 2013 at 7:54 AM, updated August 27, 2013 at 7:55 AM

It’s been 52 years since Fred Flintstone lit a Winston cigarette on television, and about 43 years since tobacco advertising was banned from TV altogether. But Reynolds American, the nation’s second largest tobacco company, plans to return to the airwaves with a 60-second televised commercial next month.

The ad won’t feature any of the Flintstones, or Joe Camel or any other cartoon character.
It won’t even feature tobacco. The ad will be for Vuse, the company’s entry into the electronic cigarette market.

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds American, has been selling its e-cigarette in Colorado on a trial basis before a national rollout.
The ad will feature lab technicians in white coats, according to Bloomberg.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered plastic or metal tubes containing a liquid nicotine solution that when heated creates vapors a “smoker” can inhale. Users – who prefer to be called vapers -- can get their nicotine without the other harmful chemicals in tobacco filled cigarettes.

Tobacco advertising on television was banned by the federal government in 1971 because of its harmful effects on smokers. But e-cigarettes are not currently regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which opens the playing field for the new product.

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Imperial Tobacco to Introduce Cigarette Alternative Next Year

Aug 15, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT), Europe’s second-biggest tobacco company, plans to introduce an alternative nicotine product next year in an effort to catch up with competitors such as British American Tobacco Plc. (BATS)

Imperial is “on track to launch our own products in 2014” through the Fontem Ventures unit, the Bristol, England-based company said today in a statement as it reported a 1 percent drop in underlying revenue in the nine months ended June 30.

“This is the first time Imperial has confirmed that it plans to launch something in that space next year,” said Erik Bloomquist, a tobacco analyst at Berenberg Bank in London. “It’s an important step forward for the company.”

Imperial has been trailing the likes of BAT and Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) in developing alternative nicotine products and electronic cigarettes in response to stricter government constraints on smoking.

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Bloomberg Is Trying To Snuff Out Your E-Cigs

Aug 9, 2013 by Kelly Kaderabek

E-cigs

The Bloomberg administration is quietly working to explicitly categorize electronic cigarettes as tobacco products and enact a sweeping ban on flavored e-cigs.

The details of the plan come from a newly leaked draft of three tobacco-related bills currently making their way through the City Council; one would raise the tobacco age to 21, while another would prohibit the display of cigarette advertising in stores. A third bill would prohibit the use of tobacco coupons, create a $10.50 price floor for cigarette packs, and increase the fines against those selling illegal cigarettes.

Initially the bills, drafted by the Health Department and introduced into the Council at the request of Mayor Bloomberg, were silent concerning the City's position on electronic cigarettes.

"The bills were written with no intention of addressing electronic cigarettes at all," Health Department Commissioner Thomas Farley told e-cigarette proponents [PDF] at a hearing in May.

The draft language reveals that this is no longer the case. While menthol and tobacco flavored e-cigarettes would ostensibly remain available at convenience stores, the burgeoning flavored e-cig market would ironically be relegated to "tobacco bars," of which there are very few in New York City—mostly because they must have been in existence before December 31, 2001.

"This is a de facto ban on electronic cigarettes,"

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