Altria Group Inc. said Wednesday it is testing in Virginia a smokeless product that contains nicotine but no actual tobacco.
The product, called Verve, is a lozenge-shaped disc made of cellulose fibers and polymer and does not dissolve.
The company said Verve works by releasing nicotine over a 15-minute period as the user sucks or chews on it. Altria said each disc contains about 1.5 milligrams of nicotine, less than in many smokeless products.
It has two flavors, tobacco and mint, and is marketed as a spit-free product. Altria plans to sell Verve in a package of 16 discs for $3 at Sheetz convenience stores. The closest Sheetz stores to the Triad selling the product are in Danville, Roanoke and Wytheville.
Verve represents Altria's latest innovative smokeless-tobacco product, a category dominated in recent years by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Unlike Reynolds' dissolvable orbs, chew sticks and film strips, Verve doesn't contain tobacco. It contains nicotine extracted from tobacco, which is similar to how it is used in nicotine-replacement therapy products.
Reynolds spokesman David Howard said the company would not comment on whether it is developing a product similar to Verve.
"About 30 percent of adult smokers say they are interested in a non-smoking product, so Verve presents a way to give them what they want," Altria spokesman David Sylvia said.
Verve represents the latest product to enter a gray area of federal tobacco regulation.
The Food and Drug Administration was given oversight over most tobacco products by Congress in 2009. However, it has not set standards for product introductions, such as Verve and the Reynolds dissolvables.
Sylvia said Altria has shared its plans for Verve with the FDA.
Some anti-smoking advocates say Verve could play a reduced-risk role for smokers.
"This is a positive development for American smokers, because it introduces them to another category of recreational smoke-free cigarette substitutes," said Brad Rodu, a professor of medicine at the University of Louisville. "Nicotine's safety is on a par with that of caffeine, so this product is a viable substitute for Virginia smokers."
Sylvia said Altria is not making a modified-risk product claim with Verve. However, the company has designed a warning label that says nicotine can increase "heart rate, blood pressure and aggravate diabetes, can harm your baby if you are pregnant or nursing" and "cause dizziness, nausea and stomach pain."
Most smokeless products carry a warning label that includes "this is not a safe alternative to cigarettes."
By comparison, the FDA is trying to put nine graphic warning labels on cigarettes.
Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, decried Verve. "This rigorous standard is needed … to ensure that any future health claims about tobacco products are supported by sound science and do, in fact, reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use," he said.
Scott Ballin, past chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health, and Bonnie Herzog, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, said products such as Verve could prove attractive to pharmaceutical companies if they are a hit with smokers.
"It would not surprise me to see GlaxoSmithKline alter one of its nicotine-replacement products so it is marketed as a nicotine product without therapeutic claims," Ballin said.
Herzog said she raised her outlook on Altria's share price in part because "it was going to become more innovative that it had been in the past, and this is proof of that. This likely is just the beginning."
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