British American Tobacco (BAT) has acquired one of the UK’s most innovative electronic cigarette companies, CN Creative Limited.

The Manchester-based company has its own research and development facilities and currently has several electronic cigarette products on the market, as well as a number of new technologies in the development pipeline.

These include the well-known electronic cigarette brand Intellicig, which is currently on sale in 26 countries as well as the UK. The company, which benefited from the previous government’s £200m Future Technologies Fund, is also busy developing a new generation of products that will exist under the medicines regulatory framework as smoking cessation devices or drugs.

BAT director of corporate and regulatory affairs Kingsley Wheaton said the acquisition represented a “natural extension” of BAT’s approach to tobacco harm reduction.

“Our core business is, and will remain in, tobacco but we’ve always made it clear that our goal is to provide those adult smokers who are seeking safer alternatives to cigarettes with a range of reduced-risk products that will meet their varying needs,” he said.

“We believe the innovative e-cigarette technologies that CN Creative has been developing over the past few years will help us move closer to achieving this goal.”

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