Asian Tech Press -- Shares of e-cigarette giant RLX Technology Inc (RLX: New York) had a rollercoaster ride on Wednesday, soaring more than 15% in premarket trading, then falling back as Chinese media published an article criticizing the potential harm of e-cigarettes to minors.

China's state-run Xinhua News Agency published an article on Wednesday night, titled "Alert to The Flow of E-Cigarettes to Minors", accusing the e-cigarette industry of loose management and the illegal sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

The report said, "Although the state has expressly stipulated that all kinds of market entities shall not sell e-cigarettes to minors, some e-cigarettes wrapped in a 'garish outer' are still pervading the minors' group. And some latent risks are worth being alert to."

This is not the first time the mainstream media criticized the sale of e-cigarettes to minors by e-cigarette firms. The major e-cigarette companies make it clear that "Minors are prohibited from buying", and market regulators across the country have issued fines for sales of e-cigarettes, but it has repeatedly appeared and is difficult to eradicate.

Affected by this, RLX Technology shares, which rose by more than 15% for a while in pre-market trading on Wednesday, fell back again. By the close of trading this afternoon, its shares were down nearly 5% at $4.61.

The pre-market surge of RLX Technology shares arises from a piece of news that the company announced earlier that it had successfully filed for the first clinical trial on e-cigarettes in China.

It is reported that the clinical trial of e-cigarette declared by RLX Technology has been successfully registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP).

It's the first clinical research project on e-cigarettes in China that has passed the ethical review and expert audit, and has been approved for implementation, filling the gap in clinical research on e-cigarettes in China.

As reported, the project will last for 3 months and will study the metabolism and disposition kinetics of nicotine in subjects and the effect on human biomarkers after replacing cigarettes with RLX Technology's e-cigarette products.

At present, the research team has basically completed the methodological validation of the biomarkers in humans.