Intersupply.
Podcast.
Die Branche zum Hören
Insights, Trends und Stimmen aus der Welt des Tabakwaren- und Genussmittelhandels – kompakt, aktuell und auf den Punkt gebracht.
Willkommen beim offiziellen InterSupply Podcast!
Ob Fachhändler, Hersteller oder Branchen-Insider – unser Podcast bringt die wichtigsten Themen der internationalen Tabakbranche direkt auf Ihre Ohren. Freuen Sie sich auf spannende Gespräche mit Expertinnen und Experten, exklusive Messe-Previews, Marktentwicklungen und Hintergrundwissen rund um Produkte, Politik und Innovationen. Bleiben Sie informiert – jederzeit und überall.
die aktuellen Highlights
Hugo Azinheira
Tobacco Asia’s Thomas Schmid interviews Hugo Azinheira, Executive Director for Global Research and Innovation at Filtrona, discussing the company’s ESG and SBTi commitments. Hugo marks 2025 as a turning point, with Filtrona transitioning from setting sustainability goals to executing them at scale. Key achievements include a 51% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, zero waste to landfill, 37% renewable electricity use, and EcoVadis Gold status. Hugo stresses that sustainability is embedded in daily operations across the company’s nine global manufacturing sites — not just annual reporting. Looking ahead, Filtrona plans to expand renewable energy, grow its plastic-free filter solutions portfolio, and also enter reduced-risk product categories.
Mark McQuillan, Nicobrand
Thomas Schmid interviews Mark McQuillan, the managing director of Nicobrand, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical-grade nicotine suppliers. McQuillan explains what truly qualifies nicotine as “pharmaceutical grade.” For instance, beyond basic monographs, it requires regulatory audits, drug master files, and strict impurity controls. McQuillan argues that all next-generation products like pouches and e-liquids should use pharma-grade nicotine to ensure consumer safety. The global nicotine market is roughly 1,000–1,500 metric tons annually, with nicotine pouches growing fastest. McQuillan also stresses the importance of supply chain transparency and correcting the widespread misconception that nicotine itself causes cancer.
Dr. Charles Gardner
In this episode, Thomas Schmid speaks with developmental neurobiologist Dr. Charles A. Gardner about the demonization of nicotine. Gardner explains that nicotine has been wrongly conflated with tobacco and smoking, leading to widespread misinformation — including 80% of US physicians falsely believing nicotine causes cancer.
Gardner argues that safer alternatives like vapes, pouches, and snus are vital harm reduction tools, yet prohibitionist policies often ban them while leaving deadly cigarettes legal. Prohibition, he notes, drives products underground and worsens outcomes.
Gardner also highlights nicotine’s potential health benefits: helping prevent Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, reducing symptoms of ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, BPD, and schizophrenia, improving focus, and decreasing anxiety.
To shift public perception, he advocates amplifying voices of older ex-smokers who quit cigarettes by using reduced risk products, echoing strategies from cannabis activism. His core message: nicotine is not the enemy — preventable deaths from combustible cigarettes are. Policy should prioritize harm reduction over demonizing a molecule.
Weitere Folgen finden Sie jederzeit bei Spotify und Apple Podcasts.
