Outrage recently hit the e-smoking or "vaping" community when Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently wrote to the FDA demanding that the sale of electronic cigarettes be halted.
What was less publicized was that the Lautenberg had been bankrolled by pharmaceutical companies, according to an open records search done by the Ashtray Blog, during his election campaign to the tune of $126,000.
Controversial Product.
Electronic cigarettes are already an issue of controversy.
Supporters of Tobacco Harm Reduction such as
Paul Bergen argue that aids such as the electronic cigarette could save the lives of smokers, while
research suggests that the electronic cigarette is far safer than smoking. However, health campaigners believe the devices could encourage smokers to continue using nicotine.
Threat to Big Pharma?
Pharmaceutical companies currently make huge revenues from the sale of smoking cessation aids to smokers trying to give up. According to the
Lead Discovery Site, in 2008 revenues were estimated at $3 billion.
With over a billion smokers in the world, the potential for growth is huge. And with many attempts to quit failing even with cessation aids (only 7 percent of those using nicotine gum and patches stop smoking for more than six months - see
Tobacco Control) it is also a recurring market.
To some extent that market has been created by the companies themselves.
Pharmaceutical companies have spent millions funding research into the harm caused by tobacco, and into funding pro-ban and anti-smoking organizations. Much of this has been via the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which itself has a share in the largest pharmaceutical company worth, at the current share price of around $15, over $700 million, according to
Business Week .
Now the profits may be under threat from electronic cigarettes.
More and more smokers are switching to electronic cigarettes as a way to beat the ban, for health reasons, and - although the e-cigarette may not be marketed as a smoking cessation device - as a way to give up.
Written by James Dunworth
Currently working as IT director for Gower Entreprises, owner of E Cigarette Direct and online retailer of the electronic cigarette.
Original Article