22nd Century, a plant biotech company with proprietary technology that decreases the levels of nicotine and other nicotinic alkaloids in the tobacco, reports that its wholly owned subsidiary, Goodrich Tobacco Company, has delivered an additional 5.5 million SPECTRUM® government research cigarettes.
SPECTRUM was developed by 22nd Century for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a department of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a subcontractor under a federal government contract. As the only company in the world capable of producing very low nicotine (VLN) tobacco products, 22nd Century was chosen by NIDA to supply its proprietary cigarettes, which are distributed free of charge to researchers carrying out independent studies.
Including this recent shipment, Goodrich Tobacco has delivered more than 17 million SPECTRUM cigarettes to NIDA, equating to 850,000 packs of 20 cigarettes.
The main SPECTRUM product line consists of a series of 24 cigarette styles, each with a set “tar” yield but with varying nicotine yields over a 50-fold range from very low to high. SPECTRUM is strictly for research purposes and will not be sold as a commercial cigarette.
Many research studies are being conducted with SPECTRUM, including studies comparing how different nicotine levels in cigarettes affect smoking behavior and exposure to smoke compounds; smoking cessation studies; and studies to determine whether there is a threshold nicotine level in cigarettes that do not produce dependence.
22nd Century will use the results from these studies in conjunction with its own research studies to support two reduced-risk applications that it plans to file with the U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA) in 2014 for two types of cigarettes in development: BRAND A, which has approximately 95 percent less nicotine than cigarettes previously marketed as “lights”; and BRAND B, with smoke containing a significantly low amount of “tar” per milligram of nicotine.
For more information visit: www.xxiicentury.com
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