Pharmacokinetics of nicotine following the controlled use of a prototype novel tobacco vapor product

•The pharmacokinetics of nicotine following the use of a prototype novel tobacco vapor (PNTV) product was investigated.•Cmax, AUC & MLE for PNTV product showed lower than those for control cigarette (CC1).•tmax & t1/2 did not showed significantly differences between PNTV product and CC1.•The relative bioavailability of PNTV product to CC1 was approximately 104%.•PNTV product shows a similar pharmacokinetic profile to CC1, while delivering less nicotine following controlled use.

The objective of this clinical study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of nicotine following the use of a prototype novel tobacco vapor (PNTV) product in comparison to a conventional cigarette (CC1). The study was conducted in Japanese healthy adult male smokers, using an open-label, randomized, two-period crossover design, to assess the pharmacokinetics of nicotine after controlled use of a PNTV product or CC1. During the study period, blood samples were drawn from subjects for the measurement of plasma nicotine concentrations and nicotine intake was estimated from the mouth level exposure (MLE). The Cmax and AUClast following the use of PNTV product were 45.7% and 68.3%, respectively, of those obtained with CC1 and there were no significant differences in the tmax and t1/2 between PNTV product and CC1. The estimated MLE following the use of PNTV product was approximately two-thirds of that obtained following the smoking of CC1, but the relative bioavailability of PNTV product to CC1 was approximately 104%. The differences in Cmax and AUClast between PNTV product and CC1 therefore are explained by differences in nicotine intake. These results suggest that the PNTV product shows a similar pharmacokinetic profile to CC1, while delivering less nicotine following controlled use.