22nd Century Group Achieves Breakthrough Technology; Granted New Patent for Reducing Nicotine in Tobacco Plants
October 14 2020 - 12:00PM
22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE American: XXII) (“22nd Century” or
“the Company”), a leading plant-based, life science company driven
by next generation biotechnology, today announced it was granted a
new U.S. patent related to the reduction of nicotine in the tobacco
plant. The new technology provides 22nd Century with a rapid
pathway to introduce very low nicotine traits into virtually any
variety of tobacco, including bright, burley, oriental, and cigar
tobacco varieties.
“We are very pleased to receive this patent
which reflects the ingenuity and expertise of our talented
scientific team. This new technology allows us to reduce nicotine
in any tobacco variety. Importantly, this breakthrough further
demonstrates that the FDA’s Comprehensive Plan for Tobacco and
Nicotine Regulation to limit the nicotine content of all cigarettes
sold in the United States is technically feasible and at the same
time refutes the claim from ‘Big Tobacco’ that such low nicotine
levels cannot be achieved in multiple tobacco varieties,” said
James A. Mish, chief executive officer of 22nd Century Group. “I am
proud of the significant R&D gains we continue to make as we
work to achieve our mission to reduce the harm caused by smoking
and seek to significantly disrupt the $100 billion U.S. and the
$800 billion global tobacco industries with our proprietary reduced
nicotine tobacco products.”
The new patent and allowed claims, published as
U.S. Patent No. 10,669,552 and entitled “Up-regulation of auxin
response factor NbTF7 to decrease nicotine in a plant,” cover
methods of manipulating plant metabolism and alkaloid levels by
controlling transcription factor NbTF7, which regulates the
nicotinic alkaloid biosynthetic pathway. The patent enables the
Company’s use of next-generation gene modification technologies
that afford greater flexibility for genetic control over nicotine
levels in virtually any variety of the tobacco plant.
22nd Century is preparing for a successful
launch of VLN®, its proprietary reduced nicotine content tobacco
cigarettes containing 95% less nicotine than conventional
counterparts. Pending the FDA’s potentially imminent authorization
of the Company’s Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) Application,
VLN® would be the first and only combustible cigarette to receive a
MRTP designation. Numerous independent scientific studies, funded
largely by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other U.S. federal
government agencies using 22nd Century’s reduced nicotine content
tobacco cigarettes, show that smokers who use the Company’s
products: (i) reduce their nicotine exposure and dependence, (ii)
smoke fewer cigarettes per day, (iii) increase their number of
smoke-free days, and (iv) double their quit attempts – all with
minimal or no evidence of nicotine withdrawal. The Company believes
that bringing its reduced nicotine content tobacco cigarettes to
market will be an important step towards the implementation of the
FDA’s proposed plan to require all cigarettes sold in the
U.S. to be made “minimally or non-addictive.” By limiting the
nicotine content of all combustible cigarettes to just 0.5
milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco, a level already
achieved by VLN®, the FDA projects that five million
adult smokers would quit one year after implementation and over
eight million American lives would be saved by the end of the
century.
About 22nd Century
Group, Inc.22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE American: XXII)
is a leading, plant-based, life science company that develops and
provides disruptive, commercial solutions to the life science,
consumer products, and pharmaceutical markets in the tobacco and
hemp/cannabis industry. 22nd Century is dedicated to its primary
mission of reducing the harm caused by smoking and is poised to
disrupt the global tobacco market by bringing its proprietary
reduced nicotine content tobacco cigarettes, containing 95% less
nicotine than conventional cigarettes, to adult smokers in the U.S.
and globally. 22nd Century owns or controls the rights to
commercialize greater than 200 issued and pending patents related
to the tobacco and hemp/cannabis plants.
Learn more at xxiicentury.com, on
Twitter @_xxiicentury and on LinkedIn.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking
StatementsExcept for historical information, all of the
statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press
release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements
typically contain terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,”
“consider,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “explore,”
“foresee,” “goal,” “guidance,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,”
“potential,” “predict,” “preliminary,” “probable,” “project,”
“promising,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and similar
expressions. Actual results might differ materially from those
explicit or implicit in forward-looking statements. Important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are
set forth in “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed
on March 11, 2020 and in our subsequently filed Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statement as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise, except as otherwise required by
law.
All information provided in this release is as of the date
hereof, and we assume no obligation to and do not intend to update
these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
Investor Relations
& Media
Contact:Mei KuoDirector,
Communications & Investor Relations22nd Century Group,
Inc.(716) 300-1221mkuo@xxiicentury.com
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