From the Associate editor
The past few months have been difficult with the world going into lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, resulting in many industries grinding to a halt, or worse, facing complete shutdown due to a collapse in business. Bloomberg Economics estimates that the pandemic will cause the global economy to shrink 4% in 2020 and the cost of lost output to be more than US$6 trillion, and that’s only if recovery starts in the second half of the year. While many industries have been hard-hit, some have not suffered as greatly, or, in some cases, might have actually grown, such as online delivery services and teleconferencing apps such as ZOOM which everyone on the planet seemingly downloaded a few weeks ago.
Nattira Medvedeva
Nattira Medvedeva, Associate Editor
The tobacco industry may be faring better than others, as people forced to stay at home may stock up not only on food supplies but also cigarettes and other tobacco products. It’s said that people turn to the pleasures and relaxation of tobacco in times of stress or boredom. Interestingly some reports say that vaping seems to be down during the pandemic but maybe this is due to adjustments due to other trends such as flavor bans, tightening of restrictions, and online sales curtailments in various markets.
Due to “extraordinary circumstances” of the pandemic, a US district court authorized the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to give tobacco companies and brand owners an extra 120 days (until September 9) to complete premarket review submissions which are necessary to allow new products and configurations of older products – especially e-cigarettes and tobacco product line extensions – to be sold on the US market. Nevermind that this is the same district court that last year shockingly moved forward the premarket deadline from August 2022 to May 2020. But, hey, nothing legislative ever seems to go in favor of the tobacco industry, so we’ll take it. (See US Premarket Review of New Tobacco Products Extended)
As everything seems to change day by day in these coronavirus times, by the time you read this everything may have been disproven, but….
BioProcessing, a division of British American Tobacco’s Reynold American Inc is working on a potential vaccine that might be available by June. BioProcessing could produce 1-3 million doses by that time of a vaccine using potential extracts from the tobacco leaf. The vaccine, which is undergoing pre-clinical testing, uses a cloned part of the virus’s genetic sequence to make antigens — substances that spark an immune response in the body. (Stay tuned for a full feature on this in Issue 3 July/August). Similarly, Canadian Philip Morris subsidiary Medicago expects to start human trials for a potential vaccine this summer.
And a French study suggests that smokers could be less at risk of catching coronavirus, possibly due to nicotine. They are probing whether the nicotine in cigarettes (or patches) specifically plays a part in stopping smokers from catching the illness — and therefore could help protect patients and frontline health workers. (See Nicotine Possibly Fights COVID-19).
So no…we’re not suggesting everyone start smoking cigarettes or pasting preventative nicotine patches all over themselves, but let’s all keep our eyes and ears open. Playing a part in curtailing the coronavirus would be an interesting development for the bedeviled tobacco plant, and there’s actual work underway by scientists, experts, and health professionals looking into this. It’s not like we’re trying to be like someone high up in the current US administration and suggest offhand, with no studies or research at all – just a hunch – that possibly maybe “people are saying” drinking bleach while injecting sunlight (?!) will zap the coronavirus out of your system.