The 22nd Century Group Inc (NYSEMKT:XXII) has made an announcement outlining that it has come to the end of the 2013 Research License and Commercial Option Agreement it held with British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI). From now henceforth, BAT has been stripped off all its rights to assets of 22nd Century and any intellectual property.
This provider is once again in total control of its highly disruptive intellectual property portfolio which relates to the ability to grow the patent-protected Very Low Nicotine tobacco plants.
The recommencing of discussions with the various global tobacco companies has resulted in most of the international pharmaceutical companies expressing their deep interest in the establishment a business relationship with the company. However, the restrictive covenants contained in the BAT agreement have stood in the way and thus they haven’t till this moment succeeded to make their entry into a licensing agreement.
Under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, FDA went public to say that it was ready to exercise its authority. It hoped that within a short period of time it would have succeeded in its quest to lower nicotine – at minimally or non-addictive levels – in all combustible cigarettes consumed by people in the United States.
BAT has in the recent times dedicated itself to narrowing its focus to the non-combustible devices in opposition to the earlier move where it had resorted to the reduced exposure combustible cigarettes. A top official working with the company said that FDA’s was one of the best articulated positions over an elongated period of time. The industry will be weighing on whether or not to pursue the litigation to fight regulators on the matter.
The President and Chief Executive Officer of 22nd Century Group , Henry Sicignano opined, “In this new world, where the FDA and the World Health Organization have called for mandated, dramatic reductions of nicotine in cigarettes, we are absolutely thrilled to once again be in sole and complete control of our technology and the incredible licensing opportunities that lay before us.”
