Philip Morris International Inc. can market its IQOS products as reducing consumers’ exposure to harmful chemicals found in cigarettes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.
IQOS heats tobacco rather than burning it, a process seen as less harmful than smoking conventional cigarettes. The FDA last year allowed IQOS, which is an electronic device that uses a tobacco plug, to be sold in the U.S. while it reviewed Philip Morris’s modified-risk product application.
The FDA on Tuesday said that available evidence shows IQOS’s production of harmful and potentially harmful chemicals is lower that that of regular cigarettes. The agency cited scientific studies showing that switching completely to the IQOS system from cigarettes significantly reduces exposure to such chemicals. “Data submitted by the company shows that marketing these particular products with the authorized information could help addicted adult smokers transition away from combusted cigarettes and reduce their exposure to harmful chemicals, but only if they completely switch,” Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement.
Angelica Lavito – Bloomberg – July 7, 2020.
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