‘Bespoke’ study designs central to assessment of next-generation products, British American Tobacco scientists tell NAS

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‘Bespoke’ study designs central to assessment of next-generation products, British American Tobacco scientists tell NAS
News release

03 March 2017

Dr Marianna Gaca and Dr James Murphy were both invited to present at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC last week, at a committee reviewing the health effects of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).

“We are proud to have represented the industry at this prestigious committee and played a key part in the discussions on ENDS. We feel this reflects BAT’s long standing commitment to openly and transparently sharing our science, as well as the high quality of our research” – says Chris Proctor, Chief Scientific Officer at BAT.

Dr Marianna Gaca shared results from our recent in vitro response studies comparing the effects of cigarettes smoke aerosol with e-cigarette vapour. She presented a wide spread of data, ranging from classical regulatory toxicology assays (including cytotoxicity), to disease models for lung cancer, COPD and CVD, systems biology and Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs). “We believe that in vitro holds great promise as a key part of a scientific assessment framework for e-cigarettes. We have demonstrated from our data that there are significant reductions in toxicity and biological activity in vitro when cells are exposed to e-cigarette aerosol versus tobacco smoke, although further scientific research will be required”, says Dr Gaca.

Dr James Murphy’s contribution focused on the role of clinical studies in assessing the risk reduction potential of next-generation nicotine products. “We recently published our assessment framework for substantiating the risk reduction potential of ENDS, and clinical studies are absolutely fundamental to these types of frameworks”, explains Dr Murphy.

Slides from both presentations are available to view through the bat-science library .

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a US-based, private, non-profit organisation that “provides objective, science-based advice on critical issues”. They openly encourage research and education whilst recognising outstanding contributions to the field of science.

Videos of all presentations can be watched on demand via the event webpage .

NOTES TO EDITORS

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