As nicotine pouches gain global traction, a clear trend is emerging: markets in the Middle East and parts of Asia are adopting these products more quickly and more decisively than the European Union. This development may seem counterintuitive, given Europe’s long history of harm-reduction leadership and the success of countries like Sweden and Denmark. However,…
Luxembourg is moving closer to adopting rules that could heavily restrict the sale of nicotine pouches, but recent reporting from Luxembourg Times shows significant uncertainty about what these measures will actually mean in practice. Although the government says it intends to regulate nicotine pouches rather than ban them, many stakeholders worry that vague definitions and…
By Robert Sidebottom, Chair of the GINN Regulatory & Compliance Committee and Managing Director, Arcus Compliance As the UK considers long-awaited regulatory controls for nicotine pouches under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the Global Institute for Novel Nicotine (GINN) has formally submitted a detailed evidence-based response. This submission outlines the essential steps needed to build…
COP11 has concluded, but the debate around nicotine regulation is far from settled. While delegates left Geneva without adopting aggressive new restrictions, the WHO’s long-standing hostility toward tobacco harm reduction remains firmly in place. The organization continues to frame non-combustible products, such as nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes, and heated tobacco, through the same lens as conventional…
I’m delighted to welcome María del Carmen Ordóñez López as GINN’s Legal Advisor. María del Carmen brings more than two decades of strategic legal, compliance and governance experience across multinational corporations, start-ups and specialist advisory roles, and will be a pivotal voice in shaping our legal and regulatory work on novel nicotine policy and harm-reduction…
Saudi Arabia’s successful Public Health experiment Backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi company Badael has rapidly scaled its harm reduction initiative using its flagship DZRT tobacco-free nicotine pouch. Since its 2023 launch, the program has helped nearly 400,000 smokers move away from combustible tobacco, with 140,000 reportedly quitting nicotine altogether. This progress contributes…
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open provides important insights into the biological effects of nicotine pouches, adding much-needed clinical evidence to an area often dominated by speculation. The findings reaffirm a central message in tobacco harm reduction: while nicotine is addictive, the health risks associated with non-combustible nicotine products are dramatically lower than…
What a night! Great conversations, new connections, and plenty of collaboration with colleagues from across the nicotine pouch sector. 🗓️ 6:30–9:30 PM, Fri 14 November 📍 Central Stockholm We can’t wait to welcome you — come along, meet the community, and be part of the conversation. Want to join us? Drop us a line at…
At this year’s Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) Tobacco and Nicotine Conference, Acting Director for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), Dr. Bret Koplow, delivered a defining keynote — not marking a first, but rather a culmination of the FDA’s evolving stance on tobacco harm reduction (THR). The address…
Nicotine has been vilified for decades, often conflated with the devastating health effects of smoking. Yet modern medical research continues to show that nicotine itself is not the cause of smoking-related cancers or cardiovascular disease. Instead, it is the combustion of tobacco, the burning process that releases thousands of toxic chemicals, that drives most smoking-related…
