Pathways to Smoking Cessation

Featuring

[Moderator] Jeff Smith, Resident Senior Fellow, Integrated Harm Reduction, R Street Institute

Donald Kenkel, Andrew Dickson White Professor, Cornell University

Neil Sherwood, Consultant, Neil Sherwood Consulting

Christopher Russell, Director, Russell Burnett Research and Consultancy Limited

Overview

While risks associated with smoking cigarettes have been well-documented, many individuals who want to quit smoking have great difficulty in doing so. Traditional approaches such as quitting “cold turkey”, nicotine patches, counseling, and pharmacological treatments have shown very low success rates. More times than not, quit attempts fail. 

Reduced-risk products (RRPs) such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (otherwise known as vapes or e-cigarettes), heated tobacco products, and oral tobacco/nicotine have all been touted as safer alternatives to cigarettes. Both research and real-world experience indicates these products can help individuals with smoking cessation. But how?

Join us for this virtual event where experts in economics and the behavioral sciences will discuss how behavioral science drives the success of RRPs in smoking cessation and how product costs, nicotine levels, and flavors are key factors in successful quit attempts.

About the Speakers

Donald Kenkel is Andrew Dickson White Professor in the Department of Economics at Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University. His research in empirical health economics focuses on consumer health behaviors including drinking alcohol and smoking. From 2018 – 2020 he was a Senior Economist and then Chief Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Economic Office of the President. He is a former President of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky, B.A. and the University of Chicago, M.A., PhD.

Neil Sherwood is a Psychopharmacologist with more than 30 years’ experience in drug, tobacco, and regulatory science. After completing a Ph.D. on the cognitive effects of nicotine and undertaking post-doctoral research in human psychopharmacology, Neil joined Novartis AG in Basel as a Manager of clinical pharmacology, liaising with internal project teams and external regulatory bodies in developing studies to support the registration and authorisation of pharmaceutical compounds. Neil then joined the scientific and regulatory affairs department of JT International SA in Geneva where he worked for 15 years covering many aspects of tobacco regulatory science for conventional and new-generation products including disease epidemiology, addiction, smoking behaviour, environmental tobacco smoke, clinical investigations, and perception and intention studies. At the beginning of 2016 Neil established his own consultancy with the aim to help develop and protect emerging tobacco harm reduction (THR) products by addressing, managing, and resolving scientific issues regarding their use.

Christopher Russell is a behavioural scientist and Director of Russell Burnett Research and Consultancy Ltd (RBRC), Glasgow, United Kingdom. In his role, Dr Russell leads the design, conduct, and reporting of premarket and postmarket perception and behavioural research studies of potentially reducedrisk tobacco products, including ENDS, heated tobacco products, and modern oral tobacco products. RBRC’s studies are designed for submission as part of PMTAs to inform the FDA’s evaluation of the potential impact of authorizing marketing of the applicant’s products on future tobacco use behaviour and population health.