Lexaria Nicotine LLC, a division of Lexaria BioScience and a subsidiary of Altria Group, Inc. announced on January 15 that they have entered into a definitive investment agreement. The Altria investment will fund research on regulatory compliant, oral forms of nicotine delivery. Altria, makers of Marlboro cigarettes, has been granted exclusive DehydraTech license rights to commercialize oral nicotine products in the United States, while Lexaria Bioscience retains a majority equity ownership of Lexaria Nicotine LLC.
According to a Lexaria BioScience press release, Altria will initially have the right to appoint one of the seven directors on Lexaria Nicotine’s board of directors and, through the additional phased investments, may have the power to appoint up to three of the seven directors. Altria has the option to acquire a 100% ownership interest in Lexaria Nicotine commensurate with then-current fair market value. Lexaria Bioscience has not sold or optioned any of its equity.
Lexaria Bioscience has created several individual subsidiaries –including Lexaria Nicotine– in a structure whereby Lexaria Bioscience retains ownership of its patented DehydraTech technology and licenses its use to multiple molecular classes, including nicotine.
Critics of the latest Marlboro marriage do not believe Altria cares one whit about social justice or smoking cessation.
"Wherever there are many victims from past injustices, there is a lot of anger and resentment that doesn't go away easily. My father also died from lung cancer just last year, so I am no fan," admits Chris Bunka, CEO of Lexaria BioScience. Bunka's company partnered with Altria to deliver nicotine to people in a "safer" way.
According to the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Scott Gottlieb, vaping tobacco rose 900% among high school students between 2011 and 2015. Dr. Gottlieb has gone so far as to threaten vape manufacturers such as Altria-backed Juul, with being pulled from retail stores if adolescent vaping continues to rise.
Vape components often made cheaply in China, contain harmful chemicals such as polyglycol and formaldehyde.
Bunka claims that teenage smoking of cigarettes is the lowest in recorded history. However, while adolescent smoking may be a decreasing trend, there is a surge in teenage vaping and "Juuling."
"While vaping is not healthy," says Bunka, "it is not as unhealthy as smoking, and lives will be saved by the trend away from combustion."
The nicotine delivery process Lexaria is developing goes a step further with a completely different, non-combustion-based, non-inhalation-based method which requires no chemicals or additives. Nor is it a nicotine gum or a patch.
"We use a patented dehydration synthesis process to combine the nicotine with simple ingredients like sunflower oil in a unique way. It allows for the removal of the bitter taste often associated with nicotine without the need for artificial flavors that are often appealing to children. Moreover, tested in animals in 2018, we proved that Dehydratech could deliver nicotine to the bloodstream of an animal in as little as two minutes. The fact that it is fast means that smokers might not be frustrated waiting for their nicotine experience to begin, the way they have been with traditional nicotine products such as gums and lozenges."
Lexaria's technology is designed to work through the human digestive system.
The ability to put nicotine into an ingestible was heretofore unavailable for a variety of reasons. Consuming a tablet, or perhaps a cup of coffee, that contains small amounts of nicotine is not thought to be any more harmful than the coffee itself. Moreover, coffee is an excellent example because society has no qualms about caffeine addiction because it is non-life-threatening.
"Unfortunately, the tobacco industry used a delivery method that is life-threatening," Bunka points out.
Tragically, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), six million more people will die this year from smoking.
"The fight to give up cigarettes has cost 60 million lives over the past decade around the world, while we debate the 'purest' way to stop it," says Bunka. "Meanwhile science has already shown nicotine in properly regulated small doses, is a mild stimulant not dissimilar to caffeine. It is even showing some success in partial treatments for Alzheimer's. While the social and behavioral addictions are one side of the puzzle, the chemical addiction is another."
"Solutions" that involve removal of the chemical do not deal with the social and behavioral issues, which is why smoking cessation is so tricky.
"A real solution needs to understand that many people enjoy having nicotine in their system. Preventing them access to nicotine is just as unfair as telling people they cannot choose to use alcohol, cannabis, or coffee," Bunka reasons.
"The key is delivering nicotine in a manner that is not harmful - or is as harmless as possible," Bunka stresses. "That's what we can do, and I'm super-proud to be able to work on that."
Turning over a new (tobacco) leaf?
Bunka says he has spent much time with the executives at Altria over the past months and they convinced him they want to make a change. (A representative for Altria could not be reached for comment.)
"Does that mean they want to be out of business?" he asks rhetorically. "Nope. However, it means we have to examine whether their company is selling tobacco from a traditional point of view or selling an 'experience' from the new-age viewpoint. I happen to believe they have come around to realizing they are selling an experience, just like alcohol, cannabis, and coffee. Once the experience –including mild euphoria and increased cognition– is separated from the delivery method, it looks a little different.
Bunka suggests that Juul were "blown away" by the preternatural demand for their product and didn't see it coming. From a market or critical analysis perspective, that means there are millions of people with inherent demands for nicotine delivered in what they believe is a less harmful way.
Bunka believes those people are what drives the market: Altria and the other tobacco companies have traditionally met that demand with products that harm their customers. Even though this is not a sound, long-term business strategy, the market remains.
Not in the least bit satirical, Thank You For Smoking kind of way, Bunka thinks it is a bit paternalistic ("or maternalistic, take your pick!" he quips) to talk "down" to the 30 million smokers in America and tell them what they want or need.
"I think a lot of them enjoy their nicotine consumption very much, and, as they have demonstrated via Juul, will switch to a less harmful delivery method to get the product/substance they want.
The Surgeon General and the FDA disagree. Both the Surgeon General and FDA chief Dr. Scott Gotlieb refer to "Juuling," or teenage vaping as "an epidemic." Since 2009, the FDA has pointed out that (even tobacco-free) e-cigarettes contain “detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could be exposed."
Bunka wants to debunk the hypocrisy around the smoking debate.
"Imagine the cry from the cannabis world if the government said, 'We will make cannabis legal but not if you smoke it.' (Case in point: Florida). Smoking cannabis is less harmful than smoking cigarettes – but it is still dangerous. Vaping nicotine or THC is less damaging than smoking cigarettes - but it still harmful. There is a double standard at work here if it is all right to smoke some things but not OK to smoke others, which is unfair." Bunka says.
"The brain shift needs to happen around the difference between nicotine and smoking. Nicotine is a mild stimulant that is relatively safe under controlled circumstances and limited dose form. Smoking will cause cancer regardless of what substance it is delivering.
"Lexaria doesn't judge people for the substance they want to utilize. Whether it is THC or nicotine makes little difference to us. All we are trying to do is enable a nicotine delivery mechanism that stops killing people. I think that is a darn good start."
