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E-cigarettes could become ‘medicines’ available on nhs

April 1st, 2014

E cigarettes could be available on the NHS by the end of the year with at least two companies one a subsidiary of British American Tobacco having already embarked on the process of obtaining licences from the medicines regulator.

The UK company Nicolites said its application was “well advanced” while BAT’s Nicoventures has also started the process, although decisions on whether their products are prescribed on the NHS will be made by local commissioning groups.

The status of “medicines” will give the companies commercial advantage and allow the e cigarette makers to market their product internationally, including in sponsorship deals, a move that will be banned for competitors not in the same bracket.

The news came to light as ministers in England prepare to ban the sale of e cigarettes to under 18s Wales and Scotland are likely to follow suit.

The Committees of Advertising Practice are also about to launch a consultation on new rules to cover e cigarettes, used by 1.3 million people in Britain last year. It will start later this month, with the framework likely to be in place by autumn, nearly two years after the first TV adverts for such products.

The applications to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority are a victory for the regulator’s determination to persuade manufacturers and importers to apply voluntarily for a licence and meet specific rules including on the amount of nicotine provided. They are continuing the process even though the European parliament defeated UK attempts to make medicinal licensing compulsory for e cigarettes last autumn,.

Existing anti smoking therapies such as gums, patches, an inhaler, and a mouthspray already have medicine licences and have been endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which advises on good practice and value for money. Nearly 1.4m prescriptions for them were issued in England in 2012, but licensed e cigarettes would not need a separate Nice assessment.

Nikhil Nathwani, managing director of Nicolites, said the company was “well advanced in the product’s licencing” and hoped to achieve marketing authorisation some time this year. It was working closely with the government, the regulator and Nice. “This will be continued even after marketing authorisation has been achieved”, he said. Nicoventures has also made a licence application for a nicotine inhalation device to the MHRA.

A spokesman for BAT, which already has a standard e cigarette brand, Vype, on sale in Britain, said the company would like to see “a regulatory approach that puts consumer safety and product quality first, while allowing the appropriate level of innovation, marketing and distribution freedoms to allow this important new product category to grow.”

A spokesperson for Njoy, a big US cigarette company, which has also endorsed MHRA regulation, could not say whether an application was in progress, when contacted.

The readiness of big e cigarette players to go down the voluntary route for the expensive process of medicines approval is in sharp contrast to the position of the UK trade body for e cigarettes, Ecita, which has railed against the over regulation it claims will be introduced EU wide.

E cigarettes classed only as consumer products from 2016 will have to carry health warnings that nicotine is highly addictive. The draft EU directive, which has still to complete its legislative process in the coming months also contains new curbs on tobacco including health warnings covering nearly two thirds of cigarette packs.

This article was amended on 3 February 2014 because it is the Committees of Advertising Practice who are launching a consultation on new rules to cover advertising e cigarettes, not the Advertising Standards Agency as the original said.

How amazon forced cvs to stop selling cigarettes

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How Amazon Forced CVS to Stop Selling Cigarettes

By Marcus Wohlsen
02.06.14
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Photo Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA/AP

Pharmacy giant CVS is booting cigarettes and other tobacco products from its stores. The change has earned CVS showers of praise, including from the White House, but there’s one player not getting the credit it should Amazon.

As the pharmacy chain was getting all those plaudits yesterday, Amazon said that its iOS app would soon let you place an order simply by pointing your iPhone camera at a product no barcode scan needed. The two events may seem completely unconnected, but they’re tied together like to borrow a phrase from Amazon’s playbook a gazelle and a cheetah.

Though the CVS no tobacco decision seems like good corporate citizenship, it’s also about staying one step ahead of Amazon’s relentless campaign to eviscerate brick and mortar businesses.

The new Flow feature in Amazon’s mobile app epitomizes just how aggressively the retail giant is pressing its technological advantage to win the market for everyday merchandise. Need more ketchup or dish soap? Just aim your camera at the empty bottle. Suddenly your whole house is an Amazon showroom.

In a way, Flow is gimmicky Most of this stuff has barcodes you could already scan at home, too. But every step Amazon takes to make buying smoother equals one more reason to skip a trip to the store. Says WIRED’s Roberto Baldwin “It s all part of the company s goal to take you from ‘I need that’ to ‘I bought that’ in less than 30 seconds.”

That’s especially threatening to a store like CVS, which sells consumer packaged goods commodity products that everyone else stocks, too. CVS can’t compete with Amazon on selection or price. It can’t even compete on consumer desire to see and feel before they buy Do you really need to hold that tube of toothpaste? The only advantage left is getting something right when you want it what retailers call the “top off.” The closer Amazon gets to on demand imagine combing Flow with same day delivery or vending machines the more CVS loses its last justification for maintaining physical stores.

Amazon Flow. Photo Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

A Place for Care, Not Just Stuff

The good news for CVS and its shareholders is that management has recognized this threat and is moving brilliantly to meet it. The company’s effort to rebrand itself as a one stop health care destination, not just a corner store, has long been under way. The decision to stop selling cigarettes takes that soft launch and turns it into a loud, clear statement of a new identity You don’t come here to buy paper towels, you come here to be well. (And you might pick up some paper towels while you’re here.)

In its press release announcing the new no tobacco policy, CVS executives said all the right things about the ills of tobacco usage and the importance of promoting better health. But the subtext was all about how the company wants its customers to view its stores as a new kind of destination a place to go to get care, not just stuff.

“Every day, all across the country, customers and patients place their trust in our 26,000 pharmacists and nurse practitioners to serve their health care needs,” said Helena B. Foulkes, president of the pharmacy division of CVS in the release. “Removing tobacco products from our stores is an important step in helping Americans to quit smoking and get healthy.”

The company also said it would lose $2 billion in revenue annually due to the decision not to stock tobacco. That’s already a small percentage of its business, even more so when you add revenue from its CVS Caremark prescription drug coverage business. But $2 billion is also a small price to pay to stay ahead of Amazon. Just ask Borders or Circuit City, which went from thousands of stores to zero stores in a few short years after Amazon started chasing their markets. In the world of marketing, you can’t do much better than the avalanche of positive press CVS is getting for its anti tobacco move. If you’re going to take on Amazon, there’s probably no better place to start than an endorsement by the President of the United States.

Marcus Wohlsen is a staff writer for Wired Business and the author of Biopunk DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life