Nicorette manufacturer Kenvue, which was spun off from Johnson and Johnson last year, has used a sponsored lobbying event in Brussels to call for further restrictions on safer nicotine products like vapes and pouches.
Hannah French, the company's Vice President for Self Care, called for the EU to urgently review its tobacco control legislation as part of a "branded spotlight" at the Parliament Magazine's Health Summit. French cited the EU's beating cancer plan in her justification for calling for such an urgent review, despite safer nicotine products not having been found to be carcinogenic.
Vapes have been found by a 2024 Cochrane review to be more effective quitting aids than traditional NRT. Rather than try and innovate to help smokers, Kenvue seems to be relying on the EU pushing excessive regulations in order to deal with the competition.
This is not the first time Kenvue has paid to get it's anti-vaping messages heard by EU stakeholders. In 2023, it's EMEA group President, Carlton Lawson, called the rise of vaping "frightening" in a sponsored interview in the Parliament Magazine.
Before Kenvue was spun out of Johnson and Johnson, J&J led the charge for vapes to be regulated as medicines - effectively a ban - EU wide. It's representatives argued in a meeting with the Commission back in 2013 that all vapes should be regulated as medicines.