Dr. Andrea Patton, Head of Prevalence Research at CSUR, Delivered Keynote at 2Firsts Compliance Symposium

On January 9, 2025, the 2025 Global NGP Compliance Development Symposium, successfully concluded in Shenzhen. The symposium aimed to promote global compliance development and advocate for companies to actively embrace the new era of compliance. More than 10 renowned compliance industry experts and representatives from China and around the world delivered keynote speeches in a combination of online and offline formats, attracting nearly 200 participants from various sectors, including international tobacco companies, leading e-cigarette companies in China, top supply chain companies, and research scholars. The symposium was organized by the globally leading NGP industry media - 2Firsts.

Dr. Andrea Patton, a behavioral epidemiologist and head of research at the Centre for Substance Use Research (CSUR), participated in the symposium and delivered an online presentation on the topic "Opportunities and Challenges for Businesses Applying for PMTA in 2025."

Dr. Andrea Patton analyzed the opportunities and challenges that companies will face when applying for PMTA in 2025 during her speech. She pointed out that PMTA applications must meet the standard of "appropriate for protecting public health," which means proving that the benefits of the product to adult smokers outweigh the risks to adolescents and non-smoking adults, requiring the quantification of the product's benefits and risks.

Additionally, the PMTA application involves multidisciplinary research and is costly. Dr. Andrea Patton recommends collaborating with experts and utilizing data on the popularity of tobacco products from the CSUR to reduce costs. She emphasizes that compliance helps businesses provide safer alternatives for the 28 million smoking adults in the United States, reduce smoking rates, and meet public health needs.

At the 2025 Global NGP Compliance Development Symposium, Dr. Andrea Patton's professional speech won widespread praise and enthusiastic response from attendees. After the speech, many participants expressed that the information provided valuable industry insights and compliance guidance, helping them to gain a deeper understanding of key standards for PMTA applications, methods for quantifying product benefits and risks, and the complexity of multidisciplinary research. At the same time, attendees also expressed sincere gratitude to the two organizers. They believed that the organizers had built a high-quality compliance communication platform, greatly facilitating communication and interaction among various industry stakeholders and effectively promoting the industry's steady development on the compliance path.

As a leading media and consultancy in the global Next Generation Products (NGP) field, 2Firsts actively maintains close contact with various testing agencies and regulatory bodies, building a solid bridge for industry resource sharing and information exchange. In the future, 2Firsts will continue to integrate resources, consolidate wisdom, and work together with industry partners to promote the high-quality development of the global NGP industry, contributing lasting strength to industry innovation breakthroughs and compliant progress.

Regarding CSUR

The Centre for Substance Use Research (CSUR) is an independent research institute located in Glasgow, Scotland. They specialize in providing behavioral science research and consulting services to the tobacco and e-cigarette industries. CSUR assists companies in conducting necessary behavioral research to help with regulatory approvals such as PMTA, MRTP, and EU TPD, ensuring compliant product launches. Their team consists of experts in behavioral science, marketing, and other fields, and they have close collaborations with several prominent tobacco companies.