This week Canadian tobacco companies raised the price they charge to retailers for cigarettes and other toabcco products. This month the price (per cigarette) went up by 1 to 1.5 cents in in most parts of Canada ($2.50 to $3.60 per carton), as shown in the memo sent by Imperial Tobacco to retailers on December…
Last spring the federal Privy Council Office (the department which serves the Prime Minister and Cabinet) commissioned a series of focus groups across Canada to gain information on a number of topical issues. The topics ranged greatly, with Canadians being asked for their input on possible names for national pharmacare and climate plans, to their…
Last week, Health Canada made public its plans to ban advertising of vaping products wherever they can be seen or heard by youth. At the same time, they also released two surveys that provide information and insight into young people’s vaping behaviours. These surveys are: The Canadian Student Tobacco Alcohol and Drug Survey (CSTADS). This survey…
Many researchers are focusing on the role played by e-cigarette flavourings in encouraging young non-smokers to use these products. Earlier this year, the Nordic Welfare Council produced a report intended to inform public health efforts by governments in the Nordic Region (Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Faroe Islands, Finland, Aland, and Greenland). Their report – The significance…
Last month, Philip Morris began selling the heated tobacco IQOS devices and sticks in the United States. This is almost 3 years after they were marketed in Canada. The reason for the delay was that the US Food and Drug Administration would not permit the sale of this or any other new tobacco product until…
[NB: On December 4th, VITA issued a statement objecting to and correcting some of the information provided in this blog. The original blog appears below, but is now annotated with reference to their objections and corrections.] Last week the first webinar was held between the Vaping Industry Trade Association (VITA) and its membership. Unexpectedly, one of…
A price war is underway among the four main manufacturers of the pod-style vaping products that are sold in convenience stores. Over the fall, each of the companies which sell these JUUL-type products has reduced its retail and/or on-line prices. The cost of a tellingly-labelled “starter kit” for JUUL imitators (Logic and Vype) is now…
l“An exciting new space” That’s how BAT’s category director Vincent Duhem described Oral Tobacco products to investors earlier this spring. Unlike vaping products, he pointed out, Oral tobacco had assets that other next generation products did not. Unlike vaping products, no device was required and it can be used in places where vaping is not…
Yesterday Altria made a regularly-scheduled presentation to investors, giving them an update on their business results for the first 9 months of their fiscal year. Altria sells that country’s most prominent cigarette brand (Marlboro), but there was very little interest in its report of the cigarette marketing. Instead, investors’ focus was on Altria reports on the…
Recently the academic journal Tobacco Control published a new study on Finland’s experience with banning flavours in e-cigarettes. In this paper, Eeva Ollila of the Cancer Society of Finland analyzed the legal challenges and defiance to the law by manufacturers and retailers, and identified the need for greater controls at the EU and other levels. See you in…