E-cigarettes: Pfizer’s False Accusation and FDA Support

Secret donations granted by Pfizer that’s how the Action Alliance for Non-smokers has become an actor in anti-vaping lobbying in Germany.

Der Spiegel, a German weekly, revealed a significant case against the OEM vape. Chaired by Martina Pötschke-Langer, the Action Alliance for Non-Smokers has been fighting against tobacco and vaping for many years. They are well known by public opinion as an opponent of vaping, showing a certain relentlessness about it.

180,000 euros: this is the sum that Pfizer would have paid to the Action Alliance for Non-Smokers federation to create a lobbying office in Berlin.

Thus, this office would have paid doctors to do biased studies whose results are intended to bury the electronic cigarette lower than the ground. This office had to follow the instructions not to publish data showing the effectiveness of vaping.

According to the newspaper Der Spiegel, “these practices show that the pharmaceutical industry is very concerned about losing market share in the face of the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation method, especially since the recent study of several English and American universities which have shown that it constitutes a solution twice as effective as those of the pharmaceutical industry”.

In 2019, a British randomized trial compared e-cigarettes and the nicotine patch (with oral nicotine forms if necessary) for smoking cessation. At one year, the weaning rate was 18% with the electronic cigarette against 9.9% when using nicotine substitutes, a significant difference in favour of the use of the e-cigarette. And this proof scientist is very scary at Pfizer!

But why so much hate?

The pharmaceutical industry is interested in harming electronic cigarettes. The paraphernalia of nicotine substitutes (patches, chewing gum, lozenges and lozenges, inhalers, oral spray, Champix (Varenicline) and Zyban (Bupropion)) is manufactured by this industry! Champix and Zyban are also drugs made by Pfizer.

We apply what is best for quitting smoking. And it turns out that vaping works very well for tireless smokers with high nicotine cravings. 

United States: the FDA puts an end to the “mystery” surrounding the vape

“The news is always the bad news,” said Jacques Le Houezec, a specialist in tobacco addiction, during the Vapexpo in Villepinte in 2018. We have been experiencing this in recent weeks with a series of sensational and alarmist announcements that we owe to the media. The reason: a “mysterious disease” that would affect American vapers, which we have already told you about in this article.

However, the more the days pass, the more we realize that this disease has never really been a mystery. The FDA (American Food and Drug Administration) has just published an official press release directly questioning the vaping of products containing THC. The agency found in the samples studied vitamin E acetate, an oil present in cannabis products sold on the black market. Vitamin E acetate would coat the lungs with oil if inhaled, causing severe, sometimes fatal, lung disease.

Remember that the electronic cigarette is designed to vaporize an e-liquid composed of PG, VG, aromas and nicotine. Under no circumstances should it be associated with oil, whatever its form. It should also be remembered that the consumption of THC is illegal and that vaping is just as illegal.

Therefore, it is not the e-cigarette that poses a problem but the use of a product that is not made to be inhaled. This is why the FDA does not advise against vaping in this same press release. On the other hand, they recommend that American vapers not buy vape products on the street nor add THC oil to e-liquids bought in a store.

These official statements do not prevent the e-cigarette from being the victim of unprecedented media harassment. Once again, the harmfulness of vaping is the subject of a one-sided debate, even though no patient has been reported in other parts of the world like Europe.

The direct consequence is a feeling of concern that emerges among many vapers like this blog reader (see below). We can also testify to frightened customers who think “to take up smoking again because of this news”. At CAK, we experience it badly; let’s not hide it.

By maintaining this climate of uncertainty and fear, the media are now responsible for associating smoking cessation aid with inappropriate and prohibited use of the e-cigarette in France. As a result, the smoker is kept smoking and the vaper risks returning to it. Meanwhile, tobacco continues to cause 75,000 deaths yearly in France and more than 6 million worldwide. This is a fact that is never mentioned when defaming electronic cigarettes. Why? Mystery.