Content about nicotine

ATLANTA — The number of adult smokers who had used electronic cigarettes more than doubled in the space of a year, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NEW YORK — Safeway pharmacists will use a program developed by the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy to help people quit smoking, under a partnership with the supermarket operator announced by the university.

Safeway pharmacists will receive training in smoking-cessation counseling techniques developed by the UCSF pharmacy faculty, while stores will locate OTC nicotine-replacement therapies near pharmacy areas, giving customers convenient access to the pharmacist.

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Perrigo on Tuesday announced that it has begun shipments of over-the-counter nicotine polacrilex mini lozenge USP, 2 mg (mint flavor) and 4 mg (mint flavor), comparable to GlaxoSmithKline's Nicorette mini lozenge. 

"This launch strengthens Perrigo's leading store brand position in smoking cessation products, which also includes coated and uncoated flavored gums and regular size lozenges," stated Joseph Papa, Perrigo's chairman, president and CEO. 

CHICAGO — Sales of smoking cessation aids are projected to reach $1 billion in 2012 with continued growth driving sales as high as $1.2 billion by 2017, market research firm Mintel reported Thursday. 

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — The consumer healthcare division of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has launched a new website designed to encourage people to quit smoking and promote such products as nicotine gums, lozenges and patches.

Quit.com is described as a "total quit-smoking online resource" that includes features to help smokers create personalized plans for quitting without relapsing.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Watson Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday announced the sale of its Rugby over-the-counter business to the Harvard Drug Group — a distributor and provider of private-label OTCs and generic prescription products under the Major Pharmaceuticals brand — for approximately $117 million.  

"I am confident that Major, with its leadership position as a marketer of OTC products, will be more strategically positioned to maximize the value of the long-known and respected Rugby name," stated Paul Bisaro, president and CEO of Watson.

 SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration took the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 one step closer to being considered by the Supreme Court earlier this week. The FDA recently petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit the court's August decision that ruled in favor of the tobacco industry and precluded the FDA from mandating that graphic images depicting the consequences of smoking be placed on all cigarette packaging. 

NEW YORK — Global sales of nicotine replacement products are expected to reach $6.2 billion in 2018, following compound annual growth rates of 4.5% between now and then, GBI Research reported Wednesday.

HALLANDALE, Fla. — Vapor recently expanded its e-cigarette offerings across its Krave brand.

The company has constructed a complete retail-rack-ready, rechargeable e-cigarette program for its vendors of Krave1000 and Krave1001. The e-cigarettes are available in four versions featuring a high/low nicotine level option and tobacco and menthol flavors, along with starter kits and charger accessories.

BOSTON — Nicotine replacement therapies designed to help people stop smoking, specifically nicotine patches and nicotine gum, do not appear to be effective in helping smokers quit long-term, even when combined with smoking-cessation counseling, according to a new survey by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Massachusetts Boston posted in an advance online edition of Tobacco Control Monday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Almost one-third of Americans who have not had enough money to pay for health care and/or medicine in the past 12 months are smokers, according to the October 2011 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The percentage of smokers is cut in half (14.2%) when it comes to the population that can afford to pay for health care and/or medicine in the past 12 months. Of the Americans without a personal doctor, 27.5% smoke.

ALLEGAN, Mich. — Perrigo is planning to launch more than 45 new products in fiscal 2012 that will translate into approximately $190 million added to annual Perrigo sales, Perrigo chairman, president and CEO Joe Papa told analysts during the company's fourth-quarter conference call Tuesday.

And while none of these new over-the-counter private-label products will help reduce cholesterol levels, Papa did set the stage for a future store-brand equivalent to Pfizer's blockbuster statin Lipitor.