 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electronic Cigarettes |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States |
Key people | Shannon Leistra, Chief Executive Officer |
| Parent | Altria Group (2023–present) |
| Website | www.njoy.com |
NJOY, LLC is an American company that manufactures and distributes electronic cigarettes and vaping products. The company has been under wholly ownership of Altria Group since 2023. [1]
NJOY, founded in 2007, was one of the first major e-cigarette brands in the US. [2] [3] It was founded by Arizona attorney Mark Weiss. [4]
In 2010, the company won a landmark lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration. The decision by the US Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling finding that the FDA lacked authority to regulate electronic cigarettes as drugs or medical devices, absent therapeutic claims. The court further held that FDA could seek to regulate electronic cigarettes via the FDA's authority under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, as argued by NJOY. [5] In response, FDA announced that it would accept the Court of Appeals decision and would regulate the category under the Tobacco Control Act rather than under the agency's drug jurisdiction. The lawsuit thereby established the legal framework for the electronic cigarette/vaping industry.
Originally NJOY achieved commercial success following the resolution of its lawsuit with FDA. Much of this early success was due to well-received launch of the NJOY KING, a disposable electronic cigarette in a package and form factor that looks like a cigarette. The King was introduced in late 2012. [6] Main product features included a white paper wrapping, a faux filter, and a red “ember” that lights when you draw. The King had no button to push and nothing to charge. The King became the best-selling e-cigarette in the United States [6] and brought in $90 million in revenue in 2013. By 2014, NJOY was ranked number one by IRI in US vaping retail sales with over 90,000 points of distribution [7] as well as 40,000 in Europe. [8] Its closest rival was Blu as well as Vuse and MarkTen (by Altria). [9]
The company's newer device, the NJOY King 2, did not find success and the increasing market competition led to NJOY filing for bankruptcy in September 2016. [10] In 2017, NJOY, LLC acquired the assets of NJOY, Inc. and the company relaunched. [11] NJOY's stated mission is to “make smoking history.” NJOY supplies e-cigarettes for independent, government-funded studies on smoking and e-cigarettes. [12] [13] The brand recovered in the following years. [14]
In 2022, the FDA authorized several NJOY e-cigarette products to be legally marketed in the U.S. [15] [16]
On June 1, 2023, Altria Group acquired 100% control of NJOY, [17] shortly after Altria sold its stake in Juul Labs. [18]
In the years following the King's launch, NJOY expanded its product offerings to include open system vape liquids, a closed system vape device called the PFT, a new disposable electronic cigarette called the DAILY, a rechargeable device called the LOOP, and a pod-based vape device called the ACE. [14]
The company's early individual investors include Sean Parker, Peter Thiel, Douglas Teitelbaum [19] and Bruno Mars. [20]
In 2013, former Surgeon General and physician Richard Carmona joined the company's Board of Directors, also serving in a scientific advisory role. [21]
In 2015, NJOY named former Global President and General Manager of Pfizer's Consumer Health Care Business, Paul Sturman as CEO & President. [22]
Altria Group, Inc. is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and medical products in the treatment of illnesses caused by tobacco. It operates worldwide and is headquartered in Henrico County, Virginia, just outside the city of Richmond.
Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is an American multinational tobacco company, with products sold in over 180 countries. The most recognized and best selling product of the company is Marlboro; its other major cigarette brands include L&M and Chesterfield. Philip Morris International is often referred to as one of the companies comprising Big Tobacco.
An electronic cigarette (e-cigarette), or vape, is a device that simulates smoking. It consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Instead of smoke, the user inhales vapor. As such, using an e-cigarette is often called "vaping".
There are smoking cessation policy initiatives by the United States government at federal, state and local levels.
Regulation of electronic cigarettes varies across countries and states, ranging from no regulation to banning them entirely. As of 2015, around two thirds of major nations have regulated e-cigarettes in some way. A 2023 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 34 countries had banned the sale of e-cigarettes.
Blu is an electronic cigarette brand, produced by Fontem Ventures based in Amsterdam and owned by British tobacco company Imperial Brands. The brand Blu sells various types of rechargeable and disposable e-cigarettes with a wide selection of flavored and unflavored liquids. Its products are available in many countries and each market offers different types of products suited to public demand and opportunities.
The health effects of e-cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are generally claimed to be less than those of smoking, but worse than not smoking at all. However, health is a function not only of the inhaled materials, but of how and how often the products are used, over what period, manufacturing/distribution quality control, marketing, the regulatory environment, and the actual user population. Reported risks include exposure to toxic chemicals, increased likelihood of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and accelerated cancer development.
The scientific community in the United States and Europe are primarily concerned with the possible effect of electronic cigarette use on public health. There is concern among public health experts that e-cigarettes could renormalize smoking, weaken measures to control tobacco, and serve as a gateway for smoking among youth. The public health community is divided over whether to support e-cigarettes, because their safety and efficacy for quitting smoking is unclear. Many in the public health community acknowledge the potential for their quitting smoking and decreasing harm benefits, but there remains a concern over their long-term safety and potential for a new era of users to get addicted to nicotine and then tobacco. There is concern among tobacco control academics and advocates that prevalent universal vaping "will bring its own distinct but as yet unknown health risks in the same way tobacco smoking did, as a result of chronic exposure", among other things.
An electronic cigarette is a handheld battery-powered vaporizer that simulates smoking, but without tobacco combustion. E-cigarette components include a mouthpiece, a cartridge, a heating element/atomizer, a microprocessor, a battery, and some of them have an LED light on the end. An atomizer consists of a small heating element, or coil, that vaporizes e-liquid and a wicking material that draws liquid onto the coil. When the user inhales a flow sensor activates the heating element that atomizes the liquid solution; most devices are manually activated by a push-button. The e-liquid reaches a temperature of roughly 100–250 °C (212–482 °F) within a chamber to create an aerosolized vapor. The user inhales an aerosol, which is commonly but inaccurately called vapor, rather than cigarette smoke. Vaping is different from smoking, but there are some similarities, including the hand-to-mouth action of smoking and an aerosol that looks like cigarette smoke. The aerosol provides a flavor and feel similar to tobacco smoking. There is a learning curve to use e-cigarettes properly. E-cigarettes are cigarette-shaped, and there are many other variations. E-cigarettes that resemble pens or USB memory sticks are also sold that may be used unobtrusively.
A vape shop is a retail outlet specializing in the selling of vaping products, though shops selling derived psychoactive cannabis products have increased in the United States since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. There are also online vape shops. A vape shop offers a range of vaping products. The majority of vape shops do not sell vaping products that are from "Big Tobacco" companies. In 2013, online search engine searches on vape shops surpassed searches on e-cigarettes. Around a third of all sales of vaping products in one US state took place in vape shops. Big Tobacco believes the independent vape market is a threat to their interests.
V2 is a brand of electronic cigarettes, currently produced by British manufacturer V2 Cigs UK also under the brand name Vsavi. The V2 brand started in 2010 by American company VMR Products, and it became one of the largest independent domestic e-cigarette vendors for a number of years. The company was sold to Juul Labs in 2018 and closed down, after which its British distributor revived and has since continued to market V2.
Juul Labs, Inc. is an American electronic cigarette company headquartered in San Francisco. Its flagship product is the Juul electronic cigarette, which atomizes nicotine salts derived from tobacco supplied by one-time use cartridges. Juul Labs was co-founded by Adam Bowen and James Monsees as part of Pax Labs and started selling the Juul device in 2015. In 2017, Juul Labs was spun off from Pax Labs, after which Altria acquired a 35% stake in the company for $12.8 billion on December 20, 2018. Juul received a $2 billion bonus to distribute among its 1,500 employees. Juul stopped selling its original device in 2023, introducing the Juul 2.
Logic is an electronic cigarette brand of Japan Tobacco International. Logic sells rechargeable and disposable e-cigarettes.
Vuse is an American brand of electronic cigarettes introduced in 2013. They are produced and marketed by the Reynolds American tobacco company and globally by its parent company, British American Tobacco (BAT). Products were previously also marketed internationally as Vype, originally launched by BAT before its acquisition of Reynolds American, until 2021.
Scott Gottlieb is an American physician, investor, and author who served as the 23rd commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from May 2017 until April 2019. He is presently a senior fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a partner at the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a member of the board of directors of drug maker Pfizer, Inc and gene sequencing company Illumina, Inc. and a contributor to cable financial news network CNBC and the CBS News program Face the Nation. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Gottlieb is the author of The New York Times best selling book Uncontrolled Spread on the COVID-19 pandemic and the national security vulnerabilities that it revealed. His forthcoming book, The Miracle Century: Making Sense of the Cell Therapy Revolution, traces the scientific achievements that propelled progress in cell therapies.
Ray Story is the founder and owner of The United Tobacco Vapor Group (UTVG) USA as well as UTVG Europe BV, an electronic cigarette company. He is also the creator of Flavor Vapes, Premium Vapes, Vape Master Cigar, Wanna Vape, and E-Hitter, all of which are brands under the UTVG name. The company's products are sold globally online and in store.
An outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) started in 2019 among users of illegal, unregulated cannabis vaping products, almost exclusively in the United States. The first cases of this particular outbreak were identified in Illinois and Wisconsin in April 2019; as of 18 February 2020, a total of 2,807 hospitalized cases, including 68 deaths, have been confirmed. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), "Vitamin E acetate is strongly linked to the EVALI outbreak...Evidence is not sufficient to rule out the contribution of other chemicals of concern, including chemicals in either THC or non-THC products, in some of the reported EVALI cases".
Electronic cigarettes are marketed to smoking and non-smoking men, women, and children as being safer than cigarettes. In the 2010s, large tobacco businesses accelerated their marketing spending on vape products, similar to the strategies traditional cigarette companies used in the 1950s and 1960s.
Veev is a brand of electronic cigarettes manufactured by Philip Morris International (PMI). The Veev originated as an element of the broader Iqos portfolio, under the name Mesh. The reworked product under the Veev brand was gradually rolled out from 2020 onwards. It currently consists of a disposable product named Veev Now and a reusable product named Veev One.
Elf Bar is a Chinese brand of electronic cigarettes produced by Shenzhen iMiracle Technology, a part of Heaven Gifts. These vapor products are characterized by their fruity flavors and colorful appearance. Elf Bar is, as of 2023, the most popular brand for disposable e-cigarettes in the world. Reusable variants are also marketed.
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