FDA CTP & NIH News

The Washington Post published an article about prominent legislators in Virginia, "America's original tobacco state," backing a bill to raise the state's minimum age for buying cigarettes and vaping products from 18 to 21. Currently, six states and Washington D.C. have raised the minimum tobacco purchasing age to 21.
 

Link: here
 

The New York Times and Business Day columnist Kevin Roose wrote an article about Juul in his column, “The Shift,” which examines the intersection of technology, business, and culture. In this article he compares Juul's new public health-based image and ad-campaign with the realities of their history and original motivations. 
 

Link: here
 

And finally, the BBC reports on a Welsh sniffer dog named Scamp who has "sniffed out £6m-worth of illegal tobacco - leading to a £25,000 'bounty' being placed on him, his owner says." 
 

Link: here
 

In a deal that will likely have profound effects on the cigarette and ENDS markets, Altria, maker of Marlboro and other top-selling cigarettes, has agreed to pay nearly $13 billion for a 35 percent stake in Juul Labs. Part of the deal involves giving a bonus of $2 billion to Juul’s 1,500 employees.
 

Altria will get a 35% stake in the proceeds from Juul vaporizers and nicotine pods (which have captured more than 70% of the US ENDS market) and Juul will get access to Altria’s marketing and distribution power, lobbying power, and regulatory influence. 
 

"In a call with investors and analysts Altria’s chief executive, Howard Willard, said his company was ready to help Juul take on the Food and Drug Administration."

Link: here
 

On November 12th, BBC News reported on the results of a scientific study recently published in Tobacco Control.

In this study, Edinburgh University researchers looked at Scottish maternity records  with information on all Scottish tobacco retailers. Results showed tht pregnant women living in Scottish neighbourhoods with the highest availability of tobacco products were 70% more likely to smoke than those living in areas where no tobacco was sold.

The research team said "restricting the supply of tobacco could help tackle health inequalities" and that limiting the supply of tobacco could help to cut rates of smoking among pregnant women, and the general population.

• BBC Article: click here
   
• Tobacco Control Research Paper: click here
   

Last week, Jan Hoffman of the New York Times, published two articles showing two common perspectives on e-cigarettes. 
 

One article, headlined "The Price of Cool: A Teenager, a Juul and Nicotine Addiction," tells the tale of one teenager's struggle with a nicotine habit stemming from e-cigarette use: click here
 

The other, headlined "She Couldn’t Quit Smoking. Then She Tried Juul," profiles one adult woman who used vaping to quit an 8-year pack-a-day cigarette habit, and is now concerned by the regulations being put in place and how they will affect her ability to stay quit: click here

Earlier this week Philip Morris launched a new ad campaign encouraging people to stop smoking and published advertisements in several U.K. newspapers. 
 

CNBC reports that the campaign is called "Hold My Light" and links to a website where smokers can create a profile and have friends commit to help them quit. People who sign up agree to have Philip Morris contact them about its Smoke Free Future program.

This new campaign was not received well by public health groups: 
 

• Cancer Research UK called it "a staggering hypocrisy" and said that Philip Morris is just trying to promote its smoking alternatives, such as heated tobacco. "The best way Philip Morris could help people to stop smoking is to stop making cigarettes," George Butterworth, Cancer Research UK's tobacco policy manager said.
• Action on Smoking and Health also criticized the campaign and said that it was a way for Philip Morris to get around the UK's strong anti-tobacco advertising rules.

BBC article - click here
 

CNBC article - click here
 

A new study, published in Pediatrics, suggests that adolescents who use e-cigarettes are exposed to significant levels of potential carcinogens which are also found in traditional tobacco cigarettes. This finding is true even when the e-cigarettes do not contain nicotine. Researchers frame these findings as a warning to youth that though these devices may be marketed to adults as potentially less harmful than tobacco cigarettes or as cessation aides, e-cigarettes should still be avoided by youth. This peer-reviewed journal article comes from a NIH-funded study with work done by UC San Francisco researchers. 
 

Find the press release from UCSF here: Link
 

Find the full journal article here with currently free full text options: Link
 

Find a Newsweek article about the findings here: Link
 

Find a NBC News article about the findings here: Link
 

The New York Times published an informative article about the new electronic nicotine device called Juul and how it is being used and perceived by American youth. 
 

Read the article here: Link
 

The New York Times reports that a FDA committee has recommended that the FDA reject Philip Morris' proposal that their product IQOS be the first product sold under the FDA's new "modified risk" label. 
 

Though the FDA is not required to follow this recommendation, they usually do and they are expected to make a final decision in the coming months. 
 

Read the article here: Link
 

A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was released today, January 23, 2018. It is the most comprehensive scientific analysis of all current research on e-cigarettes. The panel concluded that e-cigarettes with nicotine could increase the chance of youth using regular combustible cigarettes, but also that these devices are safer than combustible products and can help smokers quit.

This article can be found here: Link
 

The recently updated US National Institutes of Health clinical trials policies will apply broadly to studies involving experimental manipulations of humans. These studies will require registration and reporting in ClinicalTrials.gov, grant application submission under a clinical trials funding opportunity announcement, and Good Clinical Practice training for investigators.

To read more, please click here.

Since 2009, the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) has had the authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products in order to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use. Biomarkers could play an important role across a number of FDA regulatory activities, including assessing new and modified risk tobacco products and identifying and evaluating potential product standards.

On April 4–5, 2016, FDA/CTP hosted a public workshop focused on biomarkers of potential harm (BOPH) with participants from government, industry, academia, and other organizations. The workshop was divided into five sessions focused on: (1) overview of BOPH; (2) cardiovascular disease (CVD); (3) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); (4) cancer; and (5) new areas of research.

The full link to the article can be found here
 

Amy Lukowski (Clinical Director, Health Initiatives Programs at National Jewish Health) writes in the Huffington Post about how tobacco companies are targeting the poor. The article discusses various strategies that tobacco companies use to keep their poorest customers using cigarettes and to get them using cigarettes to being with. Strategies include increased advertising and discounts in poorer neighborhoods. Studies also show that there are more tobacco retailers near schools in poor neighborhoods compared to other neighborhoods. 
 

This article can be found here: Link