Helped Establish National Scale Distribution and Launch VLN in More Than 5,000 Stores Across the Country

Mocksville, North Carolina--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2024) - 22nd Century Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: XXII), a tobacco products company focused on nicotine harm reduction, today announced that John Miller has resigned as President of Tobacco, effective August 2, 2024.

Said Larry Firestone, Chairman and CEO: "I want to thank John for the pivotal role he played in the launch of VLN, leveraging his decades of industry experience to help us achieve national-scale distribution and establishing a retail presence in more than 5,000 stores across 26 states. He also played a key role in expanding our CMO business, including our exciting Pinnacle launch as a store brand for one of the top convenience store chains in the country. We are now well positioned to continue building on this incredible footprint as we work to achieve our company objectives."

About 22nd Century Group, Inc.
22nd Century Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: XXII) is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on tobacco harm reduction, reduced nicotine tobacco and improving health and wellness through plant science. With dozens of patents allowing it to control nicotine biosynthesis in the tobacco plant, the Company has developed proprietary reduced nicotine content (RNC) tobacco plants and cigarettes, which have become the cornerstone of the FDA's Comprehensive Plan to address the widespread death and disease caused by smoking. The Company received the first and only FDA Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) authorization for a combustible cigarette in December 2021. The Company is a subsequent participating manufacturer under the Master Settlement Agreement ("MSA") and vertically integrated for the production of its both own products and contract manufacturing operations ("CMO"), which consist primarily of branded filtered cigars and conventional cigarettes.

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Learn more about VLN at tryvln.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to our full year business outlook. Forward-looking statements typically contain terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "consider," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "explore," "foresee," "goal," "guidance," "intend," "likely," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "preliminary," "probable," "project," "promising," "seek," "should," "will," "would," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding (i) our strategic alternatives and cost reduction initiatives, (ii) our expectations regarding regulatory enforcement, including our ability to receive an exemption from new regulations, (iii) our financial and operating performance and (iv) our expectations for our business interruption insurance claim. Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are set forth in "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 28, 2024. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Investor Relations & Media Contact
Matt Kreps
Investor Relations
22nd Century Group
mkreps@xxiicentury.com
214-597-8200