Lorillard Site Defends Menthol Products

Source from:  The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area 06/30/2010

Greensboro tobacco company Lorillard Inc. is taking to the Internet to defend its menthol products amid a review by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Lorillard has launched a new website, www.understandingmenthol.com, authored by William R. True, the company's senior vice president of research and development. The site aims to lay out scientific evidence that menthol-flavored cigarettes are no more harmful than nonmenthol cigarettes. Earlier this year, the FDA began a review of menthol products under its newly granted authority to regulate the tobacco industry. Analysts have said Lorillard has the most to lose from a potential ban on menthol products. The Newport menthol cigarette brand represented 91.5 percent of Lorillard's $5.2 billion in 2009 revenues, and Newport owns more than a third of the overall menthol market share nationwide. Enditem