Hiding in plain sight: Global tobacco industry has not disappeared — it has simply rebranded

Marked on May 31, the upcoming World No Tobacco Day 2025 challenges us to unmask the appeal of nicotine products as India confronts a sophisticated and evolving threat from the tobacco industry’s strategic rebranding as 'wellness' companies.

These companies are now selling addiction in sleeker, flavoured forms. Behind the colourful pouches and influencer-promoted lozenges lies a calculated industry pivot aimed at capturing new markets as traditional smoking declines. This transformation demands urgent scrutiny, especially in a country with over 270 million tobacco users, standing at a crucial regulatory crossroads.

Rising addiction in a post-smoking world

While global cigarette smoking rates are falling, nicotine addiction is taking on new forms — through electronic nicotine delivery systems, synthetic nicotine pouches and so-called 'flavoured wellness' lozenges.

India is particularly vulnerable. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (2016–17), over 199 million Indians use smokeless tobacco, 72 million smoke bidis and only 37 million smoke cigarettes. These patterns make the country an ideal target for the industry's expansion into non-combustible nicotine products.

The concept of 'harm reduction' has become a Trojan horse. While valid as part of comprehensive cessation strategies, it has been co-opted by tobacco giants to justify marketing new forms of nicotine consumption.

Companies like Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco have rebranded themselves as nicotine companies promoting vapes, pouches and flavoured gums as safer alternatives.

Despite India’s 2019 e-cigarette ban, the industry has adapted swiftly—repackaging nicotine in forms marketed as herbal, Ayurvedic, or wellness products, especially through e-commerce. These are designed not to support cessation but to normalise recreational nicotine use.

Adding to the challenge is the over-the-counter availability of 2mg nicotine gums and lozenges in India. This policy, intended to aid cessation, often has the opposite effect. Evidence from countries like the US and Finland shows that easy access without supervision does not significantly boost quit rates and instead leads to recreational use, especially among young, never-smokers. In India, where traditional tobacco products are extremely cheap, pharmacovigilance is weak, and online sales are loosely regulated, these risks are magnified.

A call for stronger regulation

Equally alarming is the growing convergence between the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries. Philip Morris now holds stakes in pharma companies that manufacture nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), while British American Tobacco promotes "wellness" nicotine products.

This vertical integration allows corporations to profit from both creating and supposedly 'treating' addiction.

In India, multinational firms often license these products to local companies, exploiting regulatory grey areas and skirting oversight under laws like COTPA and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

Meanwhile, the industry's narrative that nicotine is relatively harmless misrepresents scientific consensus. While nicotine may not be the primary carcinogen in cigarettes, it is a powerful vasoactive compound.

It raises blood pressure, heart rate and promotes thrombosis — factors directly contributing to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of tobacco-related deaths in India. New research also suggests nicotine may play a role in cancer progression through multiple biological pathways.

The 2024 WHO Clinical Treatment Guidelines stress that successful cessation involves supervised NRT use, combined with behavioural support and non-nicotine medications such as cytisine, varenicline and bupropion.

Yet in India, these evidence-based approaches remain underused, while consumer-facing nicotine products flood marketplaces under a wellness guise.

India must act swiftly. This means banning flavoured and industry-manufactured non-combustible nicotine products not intended for supervised cessation, and strictly regulating over-the-counter NRTs—particularly those that may appeal to youth. Enforcement of COTPA Section 5 against indirect promotion and health-washing is essential.

Additionally, regulation of online nicotine sales must include mandatory age verification, and India’s cessation infrastructure — from quitlines to provider training — needs urgent investment.

India has previously shown bold leadership by banning e-cigarettes based on the precautionary principle. Now, to safeguard public health, it must follow through with science-based regulation of all nicotine products.

The global tobacco industry has not disappeared — it has simply rebranded. “Unmasking the Appeal” is more than a theme — it is a pressing call to protect public health from addiction masquerading as wellness.

Views expressed are authors' own and don't necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth