Smoking hot minis

PARSIPPANY, N.J. —GlaxoSmithKline in April announced the launch of its new Nicorette Mini Lozenge, a smaller smoking cessation lozenge that dissolves three times faster than stop-smoking lozenges currently on the market. The lozenges will be line-priced with existing smoking cessation products and will be sold as three small vials each containing 27 lozenges.

The new mini-lozenge is expected to drive incremental growth to the category, suggested Roger Scarlett-Smith, GSK president of consumer healthcare, North America, because the smaller lozenge size actually satisfies different usage scenarios. “It’s an opportunity for people to use it in a more situational way,” Scarlett-Smith said. That may mean a resurgence in sales of smoking cessation products, which were relatively fl at (down slightly by 0.9%) for the 52 weeks ended April 18 with sales of $513 million across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart), according to SymphonyIRI Group data.

The small vials can be discreetly carried in a pocket for the person “on the go,” Scarlett-Smith said. And because there are three vials per package, they can be strategically placed in trouble areas for the person attempting to quit smoking.