Health Canada and JUUL Labs Canada Inc. meeting: November 6, 2019

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Subject

Vaping Products

Date

November 6, 2019

Participants

Health Canada (HC):

• James Van Loon (Chair)
  • Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate
• Denis Choinière
  • Director, Tobacco Products Regulatory Office, TCD
• Senior Advisor, Director General’s Office, TCD
• Senior Research Analyst, Business Intelligence Division, TCD
• Policy Analyst, Stakeholder Relations and International Policy, TCD

JUUL Labs Canada Inc. (JUUL):

• Michael Nederhoff
  • President, JUUL Labs Canada
• Nick Kadysh
  • Senior Director of Corporate Affairs, Canada
• Glenn Thibault
  • Director of Federal Affairs, Canada
• Laura Oyler
  • Senior Director, Global Regulatory Integration

Introduction

A meeting was held at the request of JUUL to present:

• Changes to the JUUL global corporate leadership structure;
• JUUL’s public policy goals;
• JUUL’s actions on youth prevention;
• Data share on the JUUL C1 experience in Canada to date; and
• Market observations.

The Chair opened the meeting by doing round table introductions.

The Chair reminded participants that this meeting is subject to disclosure as per HC’s Openness and Transparency policies. In the interest of transparency, the department stated that it would be making a record of the meeting publicly available. The handling of information and privacy notice was mentioned and acknowledged.

HC also referred to Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, its international obligation to protect tobacco control policies from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. It was acknowledged by the JUUL representatives.

Subjects

Changes to the JUUL global corporate leadership structure

JUUL provided an overview of the recent changes that its corporate structure has undergone with the appointment of an Altria executive as JUUL’s new CEO.

Public policy goals

JUUL reiterated that the provision of alternative harm reduction products to adult smokers and the prevention of youth and non-smokers in the uptake of vaping products remains a public policy goal for them.

Actions on youth prevention

JUUL highlighted some of the measures it is taking on youth vaping prevention such as: restrictions on advertising; their secret shopper program, which aims to identify retailers who do not comply with age verification regulations; development of industry self-regulation programs; and their new JUUL C1 locked device.

Data share on the JUUL C1 experience in Canada to date

The JUUL C1 is a vaping device which remains locked, not allowing it to produce vapor, until the user has undergone an age verification process or activation in-store or through a mobile app.

JUUL shared preliminary results of the JUUL C1 locked device pilot test conducted in Canada. Phase 1 (in-store activation) aimed to identify the activation success rate and the friction that an adult smoker might experience when purchasing a JULL C1 locked device.

Phase 2 (app activation) of the pilot will examine the mobile app activation, which requires an in-app age verification process.

JUUL also mentioned that their new devices will allow a user to set “puff counts” whereby a user is notified when they have reached their daily limit of pre-set use. JUUL stated that puff counts were arbitrarily set by the user and no advice was given by JUUL in consideration of cessation or health.

Market observations

JUUL discussed their sales data and highlighted some of the trends that they had observed in Canada. Specifically JUUL stated that their focus was now gas and convenience stores, where they feel they can interact best with smokers. JUUL also presented 4-weekly AC Nielsen regional sales data for their products versus cigarettes and felt that the data showed that the sale of their products was inversely correlated with cigarette purchases.

Round table

HC asked if JUUL had responded to the recent letters that the United States Food and Drug Administration has issued them regarding vaping salts. JUUL indicated that they would have to look into whether a response had been sent and would follow-up with HC.

JUUL raised concerns surrounding counterfeit products on the Canadian market, and sought support in compliance and enforcement activities to remove these products from the market. HC indicated that it had already allocated its compliance and enforcement resources to capacity, but HC welcomes additional details regarding the situation.

To conclude the conversation, HC asked JUUL if they were working on a counterfeit counter program. JUUL indicated that a program is being developed.

JUUL presented HC with a draft letter intended for federal, provincial and territorial authorities requesting an aligned approach to regulating vaping.

Conclusion

The meeting was then concluded.

Documents

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