The author of this article is a spokesperson from British American Tobacco, (BAT), the second largest tobacco manufacturer in the US, who is greatly investing in electronic cigarettes and research about the products.
From the podium of NGND conference 2016
Dr James Murphy, Head of Reduced Risk Substantiation at BAT who gave a keynote speech at the at the Next Generation Nicotine Delivery conference held last week in London, said, “Despite their short history, products like electronic cigarettes have gone through many changes and can now be categorized in multiple generations.”
He added, “The many innovations and technological breakthroughs that allow for this rate of development are so rapid that it is impractical to create complete new data sets every time a product is tweaked. This would drastically impact the innovation process, the availability of new and improved products and their value as a public health tool.”
Murphy also mentioned that although a complete data set should be needed for an introductory model, a reduced amount should suffice for any following models. He elaborated on the studies that would be required for foundational datasets, such as ones to measure toxicants in vapour and their effects if any on lung cells, whilst comparing such tests to ones carried out on cigarette smoke.
How would such regulations benefit e-cig businesses?
The speaker from BAT pointed out that working on ensuring a product’s stability over time will guarantee that customers do not proceed to purchasing later models, hence increasing the likelihood of repeat business.
“Once you build the initial science package, a reduced number of tests should be sufficient to support subsequent product tweaks, Murphy said, adding that after that only a smaller amount of tests will be required in order to assess the differences between the original product and any later models.
