CLARENCE, N.Y. -- While many in the industry have suggested electronic cigarettes as a strong reduced-risk alternative to traditional cigarettes, a plant biotech company is suggesting a different approach: altering the amount of nicotine in tobacco plants.
Dr. Paul Rushton, vice president of plant biotechnology for 22nd Century Group Inc., Clarence, N.Y., spoke with CSP Daily News about the technology and how it may change the way people smoke tobacco.
Q: Tell us about the technology.
A: We work with tobacco plants to increase or reduce the amount of nicotine in them. While the science is hard to explain, imagine it like a river. We can go in at certain stages to stop the flow, pour more water to make it go faster or build tributaries.
Q: What is the status of your company and your product?
A: We started in 1998 and went public in 2011. We have about 70 employees and operate a manufacturing facility, laboratory and work with a variety of growers. Today, an important customer of ours is the U.S. government. They use our research cigarette called Spectrum for clinical trials. For that line of research, it’s been cigarettes with variable levels of nicotine. They’re looking at how patients respond to a gradual reduction of nicotine in their cigarettes vs. an immediate switch to non-addictive levels. The government buys our research cigarettes and will publish the results, which we’re expecting by the end of the year.
Q: How will it affect the tobacco market?
A: With our product called X-22 which is in development, you would ask your doctor for a method of kicking the habit and your doctor would provide you access to these cigarettes. Studies have shown that our product gives smokers the same experience as a traditional cigarette, but with reduced levels of nicotine so that after six weeks they are more able to quit. [At the store level,] the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] has the authority to regulate nicotine and could decide all cigarettes should be at a low-nicotine level.
Q: So will your product actually make it to retail?
A: For our “BRAND A,” which are very low-nicotine cigarettes, and X-22 smoking cessation aid, we are going through the approval process with FDA now and will bring them to market as soon as we are able to.
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