NFL BIOSCIENCES, which is committed to the fight against smoking, fully supports World No Tobacco Day on May 31
NFL BIOSCIENCES, a biopharmaceutical company developing botanical drugs for the treatment of addictions, including NFL-101, a smoking cessation aid drug candidate currently in a Phase II/III clinical trial in France, fully endorses the message and call to action for World No Tobacco Day on May 31, 2022, led by the World Health Organization, with environmental protection as this year’s theme.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to help build increased awareness worldwide of the smoking epidemic and its potentially deadly effects. Smoking is the biggest avoidable epidemic facing healthcare professionals, and the tobacco industry also has harmful impacts in terms of the environment and climate, as highlighted by the WHO in its annual campaign #TobaccoExposed1. This year, the WHO has chosen to highlight tobacco’s impact on the environment: 600 million trees have been chopped down and 22 billion liters of water are needed to produce cigarettes, while 84 million tons of CO2 have been released into the atmosphere, contributing to the rise in temperatures around the world, not to mention the widespread waste, toxins and microplastic pollution resulting from the production and consumption of tobacco.
Looking beyond the environmental damage and climate impacts, tobacco is of course a global public health issue. 1.3 billion people smoke around the world and tobacco results in more than 8 million deaths each year, including 75,000 in France. The costs in terms of healthcare and loss of productivity due to premature deaths and illnesses are considerable: 2,000 billion dollars per year. 2
As highlighted by the WHO in its call to action, stopping smoking has beneficial effects for people’s health and the environment.
Bruno Lafont, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of NFL Biosciences: “In the last few years, there has been a real increase in awareness of the negative impacts of tobacco on people’s health and the environment, as well as its human and financial costs for society worldwide. Both individually and collectively, from public authorities to businesses and civil society, we all have a duty to take action and support the initiatives to fight against smoking and its disastrous consequences. At NFL Biosciences, fighting addictions is what guides us every day, and we have chosen to develop innovative botanical drugs to help people who would like to stop smoking. This is where our expertise is driving progress in order to meet these challenges for future generations”.
While stopping smoking is difficult, there are solutions available and biopharmaceutical companies like NFL Biosciences are fully committed to this fight. For reference, NFL Biosciences is currently conducting the Cesto 2 study, a Phase II/III clinical trial for NFL-101, its innovative botanical drug candidate for smoking cessation, approved by the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM)3 and the Ethics Committee. NFL-101 is a nicotine-free extract from tobacco leaves. The Clinical Investigation Centers (CIC) at the CHU teaching hospital centers in Rennes, Poitiers and Bordeaux are currently recruiting volunteers: adults who smoke more than 11 cigarettes per day and are genuinely committed to stopping. Another four CHU hospital centers are also joining the recruitment program. The aim is to recruit 318 candidates to carry out this study on the French scope.
About NFL Biosciences
NFL Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company based in the Montpellier area which develops botanical drug candidates for the treatment of addictions. NFL Biosciences' ambition is to bring new, natural, safer and more effective therapeutic solutions to the entire world population, including low- and middle-income countries. Its most advanced product, called NFL-101, is a standardized, nicotine-free tobacco leaf extract protected by two patent families. NFL Biosciences intends to offer smokers who want to quit a natural, safe, easy-to-administer and personalized alternative. NFL Biosciences is also developing NFL-301, a natural drug candidate for the reduction of alcohol consumption and has a drug development project for the treatment of cannabis use disorders.
The shares of NFL Biosciences are listed on Euronext Growth Paris (FR0014003XT0 – ALNFL). Find out more at www.nflbiosciences.com Contacts
Bruno Lafont – info@nflbiosciences.com - 04 11 93 76 67 Agence Calyptus – nflbio@calyptus.net - 01 53 65 68 68
1 https://www.who.int/fr/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day/2022
2 https://tobaccoatlas.org and WHO (2021)
3 Agence Nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé
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