2Firsts Interview with Alchem: Addressing Quality, Speed, and Regulation in Next-Gen Nicotine Solutions

Key Points

• The global pure nicotine market is projected to grow from $624 million in 2023 to $1.17 billion by 2032, highlighting the continuous expansion of demand for smoke-free alternatives such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches, and accelerating industry scale-up and supply chain upgrades.

• Consumers are placing greater emphasis on consistent product experience—especially taste and throat hit—driving upstream investment in nicotine purity, batch-to-batch consistency, and sensory quality control.

• The global regulatory environment is tightening, with stricter rules on youth protection, ingredient safety, product standards, and environmental impact (particularly concerning disposable products), forcing companies to increase investment in R&D, testing, and compliance systems.

• Nicotine pouches and other modern oral products involve significantly more complex formulations than e-liquids, requiring pharmaceutical-level technical expertise and formulation capabilities, setting higher technical and regulatory barriers for new entrants.

• Industry competition is shifting from simple “flavor differentiation” toward comprehensive solution capabilities, including high-purity raw materials, customized formulations, production process stability, and long-term compliance strength, reflecting a full-chain integrated competition trend.

[Taco Tuinstra, 2Firsts] Demand for pure nicotine is poised to rise as consumers seek alternatives to smoking. Custom Market Insights projects the global market to reach $1.17 billion in 2032, up from $624.1 million in 2023. One of the suppliers catering to this growing market is Alchem.

Established in the 1930s. Alchem International started as a supplier of naturally derived active pharmaceutical ingredients and regulatory support. In the early 2000s, the company added nicotine base (pure nicotine) to its portfolio. This business began growing rapidly after 2010, with the emergence of next-generation nicotine delivery, prompting Alchem to establish a dedicated unit—Alchem NicSelect. In 2020, the company commissioned a modern factory at its Neemrana site in Rajasthan, India, more than doubling its nicotine production capacity.

Today, Alchem NicSelect supplies nicotine in multiple formats for pharmaceutical nicotine-replacement therapies and recreational applications such as e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products and modern oral pouches.

Its portfolio includes both natural and synthetic (exclusively S-nicotine) solutions. Through its production hub in India, the company has access to an amply supply of locally grown tobacco. Its synthetic nicotine is manufactured through advanced chemical synthesis and carbon-certified to verify its synthetic origin.

The company takes pride especially in its NicSelect Nicotine 3.0, which it describes as “the world’s cleanest nicotine.” 2Firsts caught up with Senior Sales Manager Riccardo Santambrogio and asked about Alchem’s responses to the latest trends in the pure nicotine market.

2Firsts: Alchem has recently developed three key technologies—NOTES, T-MAX and Pouch’ology. What roles do these technologies play in Alchem’s overall development and how have they impacted your positioning in the next-generation product (NGP) space?

Riccardo Santambrogio: These technologies serve differing purposes.

NOTES—short for NicSelect Organoleptic TEst Score—ensures unrivalled batch-to-batch organoleptic consistency; this overcomes the variation in taste or odor that can occur as a result of even parts-per-million or parts-per-billion levels of organic and inorganic materials in nicotine derived from tobacco leaf. NOTES ensures that when our customers make a product, it is the same every time, without the risk of quality claims due to unexpected or bad taste or odor variations.

T-MAX is a novel nicotine base aimed at bridging the divide between cigarettes, nicotine base and nicotine salt formulas. It is great flavored but also great flavor-free, giving vape manufacturing companies and their vape customers a new and original vaping experience, as well as a new option for markets with flavor restrictions. Through T-MAX, Alchem NicSelect provides innovation and adaptation [possibilities] to the evolving regulatory environment.

Pouch’ology gives our customers access to accelerated research and development, innovative solutions and new products in this rapidly growing sector.

2Firsts: How does NOTES compare to similar technologies in the industry, and what are its competitive advantages?

Santambrogio: In vaporized products, any taste and odor variations in the nicotine—even minor—are extremely evident. In low-quality nicotine, the batch-to-batch organoleptic variation can be wide, and bad odors can lead to the write-off of entire production batches of e-liquids.

NOTES addresses this critical need for consistent organoleptic quality, providing manufacturers with confidence—a sort of insurance, if you like—in the consistency and excellence of their products. NOTES is a unique and proprietary production and analytical technology; it reflects our diverse skill set and capabilities as a leading-edge pharma company, rather than basic extraction technology.

2Firsts: Could you share case studies of real-world NOTES applications?

Santambrogio: One of the outcomes of NOTES is that Alchem NicSelect Nicotine 3.0 has such a low organoleptic impact that switching to our nicotine supply can be made seamlessly, without impacting the final product quality. In many cases, it can even improve final product quality.

In a recent case, a customer producing a flavor-free e-liquid was battling with product consistency, as the absence of flavor meant it was not possible to mask any undesirable flavor notes in his supplied nicotine. Using NOTES technology, we were able to help this manufacturer resolve the challenge. While this related to a flavor-free e-liquid, it is equally true for most e-liquids, especially those with subtle flavors like strawberry or vanilla.

2Firsts: Please elaborate on your use of artificial intelligence in NOTES technology.

Santambrogio: NOTES integrates AI machine learning algorithms to analyze sensory evaluation and production data, thus enabling predictive modelling and continuous improvement of nicotine quality. This allows for real-time adjustments in production, ensuring that each batch aligns with the desired organoleptic profile and maintains consistency across production. The NOTES nicotine organoleptic score ranges from 1 to 5; in 2024, we improved the average NOTES score in our production from 2 to below 1.5. In 2025, most batches are well below 1.

2Firsts: What are the unique advantages of T-MAX technology?

Santambrogio: T-MAX is made from a nicotine base but is formulated in a unique way that enhances the nicotine experience and throat hit. The formulation is novel but uses entirely Tobacco Product Directive-compliant ingredients. T-MAX is specifically formulated to give vapers, and particularly difficult-to-convert cigarette smokers, an instant and strong nicotine hit, and a familiar throat hit. The technology overcomes the weaknesses and limitations of classic e-liquids and nicotine salts that require 60-90 seconds to provide a nicotine hit and that require constant vaping “top-up.”

2Firsts: Alchem introduced Pouch'ology to serve the rapidly growing nicotine pouch business. What was the rationale behind launching this technology?

Santambrogio: Pouches are far more complex than classic vape products; their formulation is pharma-like, using specialized technologies to optimize and adjust nicotine release profiles and to enhance the flavor experience. This requires know-how and skill sets that are not always inherent in our customer companies, whereas Alchem, as a pharmaceutical company, has extensive analytical, R&D and formulation resources. Pouch’ology means we are part of the journey—providing long-term support and supply—not only an ingredient supplier.

2Firsts: What are the key advantages of Pouch'ology? How does it differ from the nicotine technologies previously applied to e-cigarettes?

Santambrogio: It is difficult to compare, as classic e-liquids are a less complex product made with nicotine, PG, VG and flavor. In e-liquids, the art is in the flavor, but otherwise they are a simpler mix-and-bottle product. Pouches are different, as nicotine release, flavoring and ensuring powder flow for production portioning and sealing are much more challenging.

Pouch'ology aims to provide optimized nicotine release, flavor experience and durability, and quality and stability—while keeping in mind the manufacturing process.

In terms of flavor, we want to achieve not only the “wow” factor but also maintain the flavor for the entire duration of pouch use—ideally 30 to 40 minutes. “Quality and stability” help ensure bright white pouches that stay white on the shelf and don’t color or develop off-tastes and odors. This means they must be resistant to oxidation and coloration.

As we develop formulations, we always make sure they can run on our customers’ portioning equipment. This is important because changes in flavor, moisture or other aspects of the formulation can impact the powder flow, cause blockages and impact, critically, on defect rates.

2Firsts: Could you share some case studies of Pouch'ology?

Santambrogio: Many of the pouches currently on the market suffer from a short flavor release; simply adding classic vape flavors to microcrystalline cellulose does not produce an optimum result. Under Pouch’ology, we use flavors developed specifically for pouches and employ a range of techniques to enhance these flavors within the formulation. We are now working on an entirely new and currently confidential, approach to flavoring the formulas to take the flavor experience from good or great to “wow.”

2Firsts: How do you see the future of the nicotine pouch industry?

Santambrogio: Without a doubt, the next reality is a more regulated market, production standards, ingredient limitations and analytical requirements; while this will ensure better product quality for consumers, it will also present technical and scientific challenges to our customer pouch companies.

Through our customer engagement and Pouch’ology, Alchem NicSelect aims to support our customers on the journey with our nicotine and pouch resources and know-how. Some customers source nicotine from us, others we provide formulation development and yet others we provide bulk pouch powders.

2Firsts: How does Alchem respond to the rapidly evolving global nicotine regulations?

Santambrogio: Vaping, and more recently pouches, were originally embraced by many health authorities and experts as a route to harm reduction from cigarettes. The “mood music” is a little different nowadays in some countries, with concerns about youth access to nicotine, quality and safety concerns, the environmental impact related to disposable vapes, and the potential for NGP products to act as a gateway product to cigarettes.

The regulatory environment will become stricter. We see consumption of nicotine as an adult consumer choice and Alchem NicSelect support appropriate regulatory and control on quality, product access and the environment. Our response is to provide the required quality, compliance and support to our downstream customers.