BAT establishes stand-alone company Nicoventures for the development of tobacco-free nicotine products.

British American Tobacco (BAT) yesterday announced that it has established a start-up company, Nicoventures Limited, which will focus exclusively on the development and commercialisation of innovative nicotine products.

BAT says Nicoventures will develop a range of alternative products that are not cessation products but will offer smokers “much of the experience they expect to get from a cigarette but without the real and serious health risks of smoking”.

Nicoventures chief executive, Adrian Marshall, said the first products, which are being developed externally, would not be like existing cigarette substitutes, such as electronic cigarettes, nicotine patches and gums, but stopped short of saying how the products worked.

The new start-up, which employs four people and which will be managed separately from the group’s tobacco businesses, will discuss with regulators what sort of products could be approved.

BAT also said the creation of Nicoventures is a natural extension to their long-standing approach to tobacco harm reduction. The move to focus on alternative nicotine products has been in preparation for two or three years under Paul Adams, the predecessor of BAT’s chief executive Nicandro Durante, who took over the position last month. (pi)