Star Scientific - new product (in 2010) to help adult smokers maintain a nicotine-free metabolism..

November 6, 2009 - Star Scientific Inc. plans to introduce a nutraceutical (any substance that is a food or a part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease) in 2010 that would help adult smokers maintain a nicotine-free metabolism.

The Petersburg-based company announced today that CigRx, developed by its subsidiary Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals, will be marketed and sold in partnership with inVentiv Health, Inc. The Somerset, N.J., company, which provides commercialization services to the pharmaceutical and health care industries, has sales and marketing capabilities in 40 countries.

“Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the world,” Jonnie R. Williams, Star’s CEO, said in a statement. “However, the global cigarette business, which now exceeds $300 billion, continues to grow. Our goal is to make CigRx available to adult smothers [smokers] worldwide who wish to maintain a nicotine-free metabolism.”

The product, a dietary supplement, does not contain nicotine. It would be taken orally like a throat lozenge, dissolved and swallowed, according to Sara Machir, Star’s vice president of communications and investor relations. CigRX would be directed at people who are trying to quit or who already are abstaining from smoking, she said.

Star Scientific sells smokeless lozenge type tobacco products: Ariva and Stonewall Hard snuff. Star has just come out with a blister pack (packaging in which a product is sealed between a cardboard backing and clear plastic cover) for Stonewall lozenges. We'll have an image of this packaging in our next C-Store Update coming out this weekend.

In a surprising development we still do not understand back in March 2008 Star Scientific got the State of Maine to lift a ban on tobacco containing lozenges - a set back for Maine's health promotion efforts.

Reference: Star Scientific plans to introduce a new product, Virginia Business, 11/5/2009; Star Scientific Plans Worldwide Marketing of CigRx (TM) Nutraceutical in Partnership with inVentiv Health, Sara Troy Machir, VP, Communications & Investor Relations, SOURCE Star Scientific, Inc.,
11/5/2009.

Some related Star Scientific news briefs:
Star Scientific - will use its low-nitrosamine tobacco curing process to formulate smokeless tobacco dissolvable smokeless products..
Star Scientific - q2 2009 report..;
Star Scientific - Filing patent for zero-nitrosamine tobacco curing process..;
Star Scientific - 2008 annual report/Stonewall vs other OTC NRTs..;
Star Scientific Corporate Study Stonewall Lozenge in NRT..;
Star Scientific Files Third Quarter Financial Report..;
Star Scientific wants to augment sales of their tobacco lozenges..;
Star Scientific , second quarter 2008, sales down 23.6%..;
Star Scientific Applauds Recent State Legislation - Banning Smoking in Cars with Children..