Innovation is the mainstay of every successful economy. Owing to the massive opportunities’ innovation presents on the economic front, it is no surprise that governments are increasingly trying to regulate innovation through legal instruments.
Two decades ago, the tobacco industry embarked on a journey to develop new products that would reduce the harm caused by smoking combustible cigarettes. Ever since the dawn of novel nicotine products, governments have been on a mission to regulate nicotine products. However, players have been raising concerns over the unscientific regulation of nicotine products at a global scale.
While moderating a panel on Research and Innovation Updates at the Global Nicotine and Tobacco Forum (GNTF) in South Korea, Mohammed Agrabawi, senior director of corporate affairs and communications at ANDS said, governments in the Middle East have imposed high taxes on vaping products.
For Agrabawi, this demonstrates that government regulation can suppress innovation.Scientists argue that over-regulation affects the pace and nature of innovation and in public health interventions such as alternative nicotine products, regulation can slow down the rate at which lifesaving innovations can be accepted and adopted.
However, without regulation the temptation to behave unethically is rife and this could pose serious health challenges in the public health sector. There has been growing concerns over the industry employing marketing tactics to attract minor smokers. Some sections have been advocating for the banning of flavours in nicotine products.
Tim Andrews, director of Consumer Issues for Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) said while child protection is essential, a blanket banning of flavours would discourage adult smokers from switching to nicotine products.
“First of all, there is a need to work with the industry and have a voluntary code of conduct and try not to have marketing material that appeals to kids. This has been done with some success. For governments to just ban flavours, we have seen that it reduces adult smokers making the switch because these flavours appeal to adults. Banning has no real impact on youth vaping and it increases youth smoking,” said Andrews.
He added that governments should make it easier for companies to innovate and also stressed the need to communicate widely the scientific research on nicotine products and their benefits.
“Looking throughout history, innovators have often come under great challenges. Firstly, we need to acknowledge that inevitably, good science will triumph over bad science and superstition. What we have seen and many people have seen is that there has been success in Sweden and Japan. This shows that innovation and choice are very important. This is the advantage of innovation, it is not a one-size-fits-all.”
There have been issues around sustainability and youth access to vapes and youth access and calls to make the product look less attractive with minimalist packaging, colours, and no flavours have been on the rise.
Marlen Nazarov, Chief Technology Officer at Alfabet Labs said vape innovation should protect youths and ensure more young people are not initiated into vaping through indirect marketing.
“Innovation should be directed to the key challenges on the market. There is no one solution for everything. This is why for access to minors; this is a big challenge. We believe it’s like a two-part, the first part is to make the products less attractive through the use of conservative packaging like mono colour packaging without any fruits or any images.”
In the United States of America, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that 2.5 million people vape and 85 percent of vapers prefer flavours. He explained that smarter regulation is needed to ensure that the right balance is struck between harm reduction and avoiding unintended consequences such as underage access and environmental harm.
“We also believe that flavours should be more conservative and not so sweet. Child lock is also a must-have for all the products. Environmental harm is also very important to consider. In the US, 150 million devices were discarded in 2022. That is why the industry needs to invest in the recycling of devices.”
Yu Kang, head of the Research Institute at Hangsen International Group said, “We are now making innovations and trying to find better solutions to provide better and safer products to our consumers. When we talk about Harm reduction, we do see that it aligns with all our affairs and engagements with our partners. Hangsen International Group has been establishing a framework of harm reduction that will help test new products and produce safer ones.” He closed by highlighting that the industry is young and has a promising future.
Rex Zhang, strategy director at Shenzhen Smoore Technology Co said there were two main challenges to the vaping industry namely user experience and sustainability.
“On youth vaping, child protection must be more advanced to stop children using them,” said Zhang.
Meanwhile, Ming Deng, head of the NGPs Industry Study at Yunnan University who spoke during a panel on Regulation: International Perspectives offered an insight into Asian regulation and innovation in next-generation products. He noted that Asia is a diverse continent, and a universal experience around next-generation regulation does not exist.
He gave the example of South Korea which has very strict laws around public vaping and smoking. On innovation, Deng suggested that the last twenty years in the tobacco and nicotine industry have been unusually dynamic compared to the previous couple of centuries. This is primarily due to the innovation in the industry. As a result, for the first time regulators, consumers, and the industry do not know each other as they did in the combustible era.
