Cancer Specialist Strengthens Scientific Competence Within Swedish Match

Professor Lars Erik Rutqvist has a long and solid experience ofboth clinical and epidemiological cancer research. He stands behindseveral of the scientific papers published about Swedish oral snuff(snus), eg. one of the world's most extensive epidemiological paperson risk factors of cancer in the head and neck, "Smoking tobacco, oralsnuff and alcohol in the etiology of carcinoma of the head and neck".The paper was published in the well-reputed American scientificjournal Cancer in 1998. The result showed an increased risk for cancerwith cigarette smoking, particularly in combination with alcoholconsumption, however, no increased risk was found for the use ofSwedish snus. Furthermore, Professor Rutqvist has published more than150 papers in international scientific journals.

"Through my work within Swedish cancer care, I have seen the harmsmoking can lead to, and I have also come to understand the positiveaspects of smokeless alternatives, for example snus, as an alternativefor those who cannot or do not wish to give up their tobaccoconsumption", says Lars Erik Rutqvist. "Cigarette smoking presents animportant and growing health problem in the world. This must be met byactive measures to limit unhealthy activities. In this respect,Swedish Match can make a positive contribution. It is an excitingchallenge to contribute to this development. No other single effortfor public health is more important than to induce people to refrainfrom cigarettes and I will continue to work for this, only now from anew position with a broader perspective", says Lars Erik Rutqvist.

Sweden has a unique consumption pattern in the tobacco area. Aconsiderably lower proportion of Swedish men smoke daily compared withother European countries, but the total tobacco consumption is aboutthe same. The difference is spelled s-n-u-s. A consequence of theSwedish consumption pattern is that among Swedish men there is a lowerincidence of tobacco related cancer than in other countries. Thisfact, often referred to as "the Swedish Experience", has attractedincreased interest in public health circles and among scientistsworldwide. Given this, Swedish Match has a need to engage furthermedical expertise to the Company.

"Through the extensive research that Professor Rutqvist hasaccomplished during his close to 30-year career, he possesses thecompetence that we need in order to initiate, analyse, document andcomment on research on snus as an alternative to cigarettes", saysSven Hindrikes, President and CEO of Swedish Match. "We need toincrease the medical competence within the Company in order tocontinue to effectively influence the development towards a morepragmatic societal attitude in Sweden, in the EU, but also in otherparts of the world, as well as to assist in the development of othersmokeless alternatives", concludes Sven Hindrikes.

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Swedish Match has a broad range of market-leading brands intobacco niche product areas as well as matches and lighters. TheGroup's global operations generated sales of 13,311MSEK for the twelvemonth period ending December 31, 2005. Swedish Match shares are listedon Stockholmsborsen (SWMA).