XXII News & Events

22nd Century files to sell 3.02M shares of common stock for holders

22nd Century trading halted, news pending

Reports Q1 revenue $4.1M vs. $.5M last year. "Following the initial Pinnacle VLN distribution in Q4 2025, smokers began to gravitate to and are purchasing VLN cigarettes in a growing number of geographies and stores," said CEO Larry Firestone. "Having accumulated a base of state authorizations across our portfolio of brands, we continue to focus on expanding our distribution and introducing smoking consumers to our VLN products...We are targeting to grow to more than 5,000 retail outlets by the end of 2026 by adding new retail partners across all classes of trade. Supporting this effort, we have significantly advanced further sales efforts with additional retail partners seeking to add VLN branded products to their line-ups...Our business model is set so that all current and any newly authorized combustible tobacco products in this expanded portfolio once authorized will be available for licensing, providing other tobacco companies with compliant, ready-to-market product pathways...By combining our proprietary plant biotechnology, FDA-authorized claims, expanded retail distribution, broader product categories and readily available licensing, 22nd Century intends to lead the transition away from highly addictive tobacco products and support adult smokers and tobacco users seeking meaningful change".

22nd Century announced corporate updates regarding a new testing services agreement with North Carolina State University aimed at validating tobacco varieties featuring improved leaf quality and increased crop yields with the same low-nicotine content. The initiative builds upon 22nd Century's reduced nicotine content technology platform, which utilizes plant breeding and biotechnology to reduce nicotine content in tobacco to minimally addictive levels. The company's reduced nicotine tobacco is the foundation of its FDA-authorized VLN combustible cigarette products. The newly signed testing services agreement will focus on confirming commercial viability of tobacco varieties incorporating 22nd Century's patented low-nicotine genetics to increase yield, improve leaf quality and consistency, support more efficient, scalable production, ensure long-term sustainability for contracted growers, and preserve the integrity of the company's reduced-nicotine characteristics. Under the terms of the testing services agreement, researchers at North Carolina State University will work alongside 22nd Century's plant science team to evaluate genetic pathways associated with increased harvest volume per acre and an even better-quality leaf for our new lines of reduced nicotine tobacco. The research is expected to include field evaluations, quality assessments, yield calculations, and alkaloid characterization with nicotine quantification.