22nd Century Stands Fully Prepared to Enable New Zealand Proposal to Advance Nationwide Smoke-Free Action Plan - Seite 2

New Zealand has played a key role in past smoking reduction initiatives that have eventually been adopted globally. 22nd Century also expects other countries, including Australia and Canada as well as the World Health Organization (WHO), will call to reduce the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes sold in their countries and around the world. “New Zealand has so often been at the vanguard of the right policy for a just and thriving society, being the first self-governing nation to give women the vote in 1893, and it continues to this day to provide inspirational leadership. We recognize the disproportionate burden that cigarette addiction has on minority and vulnerable communities in New Zealand, as it does in the U.S., and stand ready to play our part in addressing this key societal and health issue,” added John Pritchard, vice president of regulatory science at 22nd Century Group.

“We know other countries and the WHO will be further encouraged by New Zealand, and 22nd Century has already advanced dialogue with a number of these interested parties. With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA] continuing its review of the ANPRM, to see another country putting forward such proposals is a significant development for global public health and our commercial interest. I am confident that the FDA will move quickly to enact its mandate to reduce the nicotine content in all cigarettes sold in the U.S. to ‘minimally or non-addictive levels,’ as it proposed in its 2017 Comprehensive Plan for Tobacco and Nicotine Regulation,” said Mish.

22nd Century’s VLN RNC cigarettes contain just 0.5 milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco, 95% less nicotine than conventional cigarette brands, which is exactly in line with the New Zealand proposal. It is the only combustible tobacco product that complies with the FDA’s proposed nicotine rule and has already been authorized to be sold in the U.S. through the FDA’s PMTA pathway. Numerous independent scientific studies, funded largely by the FDA, the (NIH), and other U.S. federal government agencies, have demonstrated that using reduced nicotine content tobacco cigarettes helps smokers reduce their nicotine exposure and dependence; smoke fewer cigarettes per day; increase their number of smoke-free days; and double their quit attempts – all with minimal or no evidence of nicotine withdrawal or compensatory smoking.