Our commitment
Our commitment goes beyond simply conducting the science, we believe it is as important to share it with the wider scientific community, which is why we publish details of our scientific research on this website and submit the results of our research to peer-reviewed scientific journals, irrespective of the findings.
To date, we have published more than 110 papers and manuscripts. These include a series for Vuse / Vype ePen – the most comprehensive dossier of scientific data published on a single vapour product to date – as well as numerous papers on our flagship THP glo. We also contribute to debates around tobacco harm reduction at conferences and in publications and reports.
A weight of evidence approach to assess risk
To further consumer choice, we have three New Categories – Vapour Products, Tobacco Heating Products and Modern Oral Products. All adhere to strict product quality standards, undergoing thousands of hours of testing before they reach the consumer.
3. Toxicological studies
6. Clinical: Exposure
9. Epidemiological modelling
Epidemiological
data
3. Toxicological studies
6. Clinical: Exposure
9. Epidemiological modelling
Emissions
Combustion studies
These are designed to investigate whether an alternative product functions in the predicted manner. For inhaled products, studies analyse whether or not combustion takes place, as combustion causes the majority of toxicants in cigarette smoke.
Emissions studies
These laboratory studies measure the identities and levels of toxicants present in the emissions from an alternative product and compare them with those of a reference cigarette or other comparator products.
Toxicological studies
These laboratory studies assess the possible adverse effects of products’ emissions on cells and compares them to effects of a reference cigarette or other comparator products. These studies use assays and endpoints defined by regulators or identified in the literature, such as cytotoxicity and mutagenicity, to assess potential cell damage, as well as toxicological studies that assess pathways of diseases. These studies may also assess the composition, concentration, and possible toxicological effects of a products’ environmental emissions.
Exposure
Use behaviour
These are human studies that examine adult consumer behaviour and help us understand how they use the products. This information helps assess users’ exposure to product emissions and also informs the design of our laboratory and clinical studies, which aim to mimic actual usage patterns.
Clinical: Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies
These are short-term human studies where volunteers have their blood sampled to assess nicotine levels, before, during and after product use.
Clinical: Exposure
These are human studies where volunteers stay in a clinic for a defined period of days during which one portion of volunteers continue to smoke, another portion switches completely to an alternative product and a third portion quit using tobacco and nicotine entirely. Blood, urine and/or breath are tested for biomarker levels to indicate exposure to certain toxicants.
Risk
Clinical individual risk
These are medium-term studies of 6 months to a year duration. The purpose of these studies is to assess whether any toxicant exposure reductions found in short-term studies are maintained over a longer period and also to evaluate any changes in biomarkers of biological effect (chemicals in blood, urine and/or breath) linked to disease pathways, also known as biomarkers of potential harm. These studies compare data from subjects who continue to smoke with data from people who have switched completely to the alternative product being studied, who have stopped smoking altogether or are never-smokers.
Populations risk (Post-marketing surveillance)
These studies survey a defined population (including smokers, former smokers and never-smokers) to estimate the population-wide effects of the introduction to the market of a new tobacco or nicotine product. The natural consumption behaviour of a population over time is monitored to understand potential effects relevant to tobacco harm reduction.
Epidemiological modelling data
Using available health and consumer behaviour data from previous years, algorithmic models are developed to predict the possible public health impact of the introduction of particular alternative products to the market using a variety of assumptions (based on the previous eight steps of the framework) to map out likely scenarios.
Long-term: Epidemiological data
The key to understanding consumer use and public health impact of alternative products is epidemiological data, which can only be gathered over the long-term i.e., several decades in the case of Snus usage in Sweden. These types of studies determine human health risks using large populations and help to show how these change over time, whether due to regulatory interventions, introduction of new products or shifts in consumer behaviour.
For substantiation of the potential for significant tobacco harm reduction, the most compelling evidence that currently exists is from Sweden where males have the lowest rates of smoking in Europe, as over 66% of former smokers have switched to the oral smokeless product Snus. Based on availability of robust long-term data scientists have been able to track disease rates on a yearly basis and today Sweden has the lowest incidence of lung cancer in the whole of the EU1.