Vapes still awaiting FDA’s marketing orders have remained in stock thanks to the agency’s enforcement discretion — even though they’re not legally on the market.
Much to his critics’ dismay, the new chief tobacco regulator won’t say whether the FDA will remove unauthorized electronic cigarettes from store shelves in the near term, even though the agency finalized a rule in 2016 making vape products without marketing orders illegal.
“I’m committing to explore all viable pathways that are legally and scientifically defensible,” Brian King, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, insisted several times in an interview with POLITICO since assuming the position. “Nothing is off the table.”
Public health groups have sued the agency for delays in its e-cigarette regulation. On Sept. 9, the office will be a year past a deadline the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland set for it to decide whether e-cigarettes will be allowed to remain on shelves. CTP received 6.7 million vape marketing applications and ordered most of them off the market — although many e-cig makers appealed the decisions and are awaiting final outcomes.
Katherine Ellen Folley – Politico – 2022-09-06.
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