Imperial Brands to show harm-reduction evidence for heated tobacco at EVO NXT

Imperial Brands will be presenting evidence to support the potential role of heated tobacco in tobacco harm reduction at the upcoming EVO NXT conference in Milan from 3rd to 4th April.

Sarah Cordery (pictured), scientific officer at Imperial Brands, told TobaccoIntelligence: “Heated tobacco is arguably the next-generation product with the most similarity to cigarettes. It is tobacco-based and its behavioural and sensorial facets also recall elements of the smoking experience.

“This means it’s certainly an attractive category for those adult smokers uninterested in moving away from cigarettes – and the findings we’re presenting at EVO NXT bear that view out.”

 

Encouraging study results

 

Cordery told TobaccoIntelligence that Imperial Brands had garnered “some compelling numbers” from recent research it has conducted to illustrate this. The UK-based tobacco giant conducted the in-market close-to-real-world behavioural study in the Czech Republic, focusing solely on heated tobacco.

“Prior to the study onset, all our adult smoker participants expressed no intention to quit,” she said. “However, after only a single week, we already observed substantial reductions in smoking of over 35%.”

By the end of the 24-week study, Cordery reported that half of the participants had either completely switched or cut smoking by at least 50%.

“This is an encouraging indication that high-quality heated tobacco devices can help switch adult smokers – even those with no prior intention to quit – away from cigarettes,” she told TobaccoIntelligence.

“That said, every adult smoker’s experience of moving away from cigarettes will be unique, so we firmly advocate that a range of diverse next-generation products (categories, formats, flavours, nicotine strengths, and so on) maximises their opportunity to leave cigarettes behind for good.”

 

Reducing risk among industry challenges

 

While advocating heated tobacco over smoking, Cordery agreed with the “general consensus” that it was not as safe as vaping.

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Imperial Brands has developed its own relative-risk scale, which positions products along the scale according to criteria such as whether they contain or combust tobacco, the levels of toxicants contained within, and so on.

The company positioned heated tobacco closest to cigarettes on its risk scale – albeit “significantly harm-reduced”. This was defined as “an average reduction of up to 96% in levels of toxicants compared with cigarette smoke”.

Cordery emphasised: “The key message to take away when looking at either the continuum of risk or our own relative-risk scale is the crucial distinction between high-risk cigarettes and other, potentially reduced-harm nicotine-containing products – including heated tobacco – that don’t involve any tobacco combustion.”

When asked about current industry challenges, she raised the myths and misperceptions around the heated tobacco industry, calling for more evidence-based education to dispel them.

“Myths and misperceptions are certainly key challenges – not just around the harm-reduction potential of heated tobacco and other next-generation products like vapes relative to cigarettes, but also nicotine itself. Many people – not just consumers but also healthcare providers and regulators – still believe it [nicotine] is carcinogenic and the main cause of smoking-related disease. It’s not.”

She stressed the importance of evidence-based education and dispelling myths to enable more informed choice and improved uptake of next-generation products, such as heated tobacco, by adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke.

 

Calls for more supportive regulation, less mistrust

 

Cordery also called for more supportive regulatory environments along the lines of countries such as the UK, Sweden and New Zealand, which have seen positive public health results from the tobacco harm-reduction policies they have implemented.

“Conversely, aggressive excise duties, flavour restrictions, or even complete next-generation product bans, can result in negative consequences for population-level public health, opening the doors to criminals through the illicit trade, and thus further hindering tobacco harm reduction,” she said.

Because mistrust of the tobacco industry was still an issue, she said Imperial Brands was working hard to “shift perceptions through engagement and transparent communication and publication of our science through robust independent peer-review processes”.

To deal with the rapid evolution of the tobacco and nicotine industry, Imperial Brands has adopted “a challenger mindset, with a consumer-led and data-driven approach and a commitment to consumer-centric science and innovation”.

Cordery added: “Although positive progress is undoubtedly being made, we’d love to see this commitment recognised externally even more – resulting in greater trust that allows us to collaborate more closely around science, innovation, communications and policy with public health and regulators for the benefit of global public health.”

In terms of the evolution of next-generation product science, she cited Imperial Brands’s recent raft of in-market behavioural studies, said to generate “incredibly relevant and persuasive ‘real world’ data, as well as human-relevant in vitro models to further assess longer health impacts”.

– TobaccoIntelligence staff

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TobaccoIntelligence

This article was written by one of TobaccoIntelligence’s international correspondents. We currently employ more than 40 reporters around the world to cover individual nicotine markets.

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