Please note that Altria and PMI (which split off of Altria several years ago and moved to Switzerland to avoid the US Justice Dept and taxes) have been actively and publicly lobbying for FDA and MHRA regulation of e-cigs (just as PM/Altria negotiated and agreed to the FSPTCA in 2004 with CTFK's Matt Myers, GSK's Mitch Zeller (now at FDA), Henry Waxman and Ted Kennedy to regulate cigarettes, RYO and smokeless tobacco). The two key reasons why Altria lobbied for the FSPTCA was to protect cigarettes from harm reduction competition by smokeless tobacco (until Altria bought UST in 2007) and to protect its Marlboro cigarette empire from smaller cigarette competitors (that can't afford to comply with FDA regulations).
Before Congress enacted the FSPTCA in 2009, Altria was the only cigarette company that supported the FSPTCA (although UST and Swedish Match endorsed it in 2007, just before Altria bought UST). Meanwhile, ALL other cigarette companies (except PMI, which spun off of Altria around 2007) vehemently opposed FDA regulation of tobacco, and were very upset at Altria for lobbying for its enactment.
In recent years, British American Tobacco, Swedish Match, and (to a lesser degree) Reynolds American joined with Altria and PMI to support FDA's MRTP guidance (costing about $10 million to file each MRTP application), while all tobacco companies now publicly endorse FDA regulation (because its the law of the land and for goo PR).
Although Lorillard, Imperial and Japan Tobacco (the other large cigarette companies) have not publicly endorsed any FDA or MHRA regulations (for tobacco or e-cigs), those companies are not actively opposing the FDA or MHRA deeming regulation, and appear to have been warming up to the Deeming regs (because they realize that it could earn them profits at the expense of >99% of smaller e-cig companies), but will likely urge FDA (and MHRA) to lower their extremely high bar for New Tobacco (or Medicines) Product approvals.
