Vape products can stay on market one year while FDA reviews * Judge says there is a ‘clear public health emergency’
E-cigarette companies such as Juul Labs Inc. must submit applications to U.S. regulators by May 2020 to keep their vaping products on the market, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The ruling was the result of a court case brought by anti-tobacco and public-health groups after the FDA had delayed an earlier application deadline. The groups argued that the agency had abdicated its duty to regulate the products, which have been blamed for a rise of youth use of vaping products.
The Food and Drug Administration began overseeing e-cigarettes in 2016 under the Obama administration. After Donald Trump took office in 2017, the agency pushed back until August 2022 the application deadline for a safety and public health review.
“Given the uncertainty in the efficacy of e-cigarettes as smoking cessation devices, the overstated effects that a shorter deadline may have on manufacturers, the industry’s recalcitrance, the continued availability of e-cigarettes and their acknowledged appeal to youth, and the clear public health emergency, I find that a deadline is necessary,” U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm wrote in his order.
Anna Edney – Bloomberg – July 12, 2019.
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