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Despite the announcement of Scott Gottlieb's sudden resignation from the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month, the FDA commissioner said he remained confident that heightened regulation of the electronic cigarette and tobacco industries would continue. after he left. And that means that Juul has not yet dropped out.
In an interview on CNBC Squawk Box This week, Gottlieb said the policies he initiated in the course of his duties would evolve as expected, including the FDA's proposed restrictions on Wednesday that would limit the sale of flavored e-cigs. . Asked specifically about meetings he had this week with tobacco giants Altria and Juul – two companies he has specifically focused on in recent months after signing their $ 12.8 billion contract a year last – he reiterated his earlier statements that, if the number of young vapers continues vape products could risk being removed from the market.
"If the National Youth Survey on Youth Smoking in 2019 – on which we are in the field collecting this data – reveals a further rise in the use of adolescents, we will redefine our policy in the fall. We will also have to determine whether we will remove from the market the whole category of pod-based electronic cigarettes, "he said. "At some point, the use of these products by young people becomes so intolerable that they have no redeeming value for public health and we will simply have to sweep the market for these products. And that includes Juul. These are the products abused by children. "
According to an article in the New York Times on Friday, after Gottlieb's departure from the FDA, major tobacco groups are looking to seize this opportunity. Groups of lobbyists and retailers likely to be affected by the new restrictions on the sale of vape reportedly went to Washington to try to lift the proposed restrictions, including the ban on minors in shops selling flavored e-cigarette products, as well as age verification systems to prohibit online sales to children.
"We are committed to reducing youth use while preserving our ability to eliminate fuel-laden cigarettes, the leading cause of preventable death worldwide," Juul said in a statement released on Wednesday in response to proposed FDA restrictions . "As part of our November 2018 action plan to keep JUUL products out of the reach of young people, we stopped the sale of flavored JUULpod to retail stores, strengthened our retail compliance program and Secret shopping, strengthened our online age verification system, our Facebook and Instagram accounts and are continually working to remove inappropriate content from third-party social networks. "
Decommissioning systems that allow Gottlieb to qualify a vape epidemic among young people are among his highest priorities since he was at the FDA. Gottlieb particularly criticized Juul, the choice of choice among adolescents and a product he often accused of not having promised to commit to keep his products out of the reach of minors, especially after signing his agreement with the Marlboro manufacturer.
Gottlieb has great claims about the future of the electronic cigarette because he has a foot outside. But even with just a few weeks at his post, it seems that the fate of Juul and other e-cigs products is yet to be determined.
[CNBC, New York Times]Source link
