*Smoking is harmful to health, minors are prohibited from using e-cigarettes, and non-smokers are not recommended to use e-cigarettes
According to the “Wall Street Journal” report, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to withdraw Altria’s e-cigarette brand Juul from the U.S. market, that is, Juul’s PMTA application will be rejected. The FDA could announce the decision as early as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
Juul Labs has been seeking FDA authorization to continue legal sales of its tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes in the U.S. market.
It is reported that this review has begun in 2020. The FDA requires all e-cigarette manufacturers to submit products. An important criterion to measure is whether the benefits of these products to adult smokers outweigh the disadvantages of attracting young people to use e-cigarettes. . Juul submitted an e-cigarette in two flavors, Virginia Tobacco and Menthol.
But after a 2-year review of data submitted by Juul, the FDA will ultimately reject the company’s application.
It is reported that Juul entered the attention of the US FDA four years ago, when the company’s fruit-flavored e-cigarettes and fashionable marketing methods were accused of “facilitating a boom in underage smoking.”
Since then, the company has struggled to regain the trust of regulators and the public, limiting its marketing activities and halting sales of sweet and fruity e-cigarettes in 2019. At the same time, sales of Juul e-cigarettes have been declining year by year.
With the news that Juul will withdraw from the U.S. market, the stock price of Altria Group, which holds Juul’s shares, also ushered in a sharp drop, taking back all gains during the year. Altria, which spent $12.8 billion for a stake in Juul in 2018, had written down the investment to $1.6 billion earlier this year.
Juul is also facing a lot of lawsuits and investigations for “lureing minors to use nicotine products”, but it is still shocking and embarrassing to be directly kicked out of the US base.
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Juul e-cigarettes were the fulcrum of the teen vaping crisis, caused by their products and marketing practices. He also said that the FDA is right to exercise caution and that while e-cigarettes offer adult smokers an opportunity to quit combustible cigarettes, they must be marketed by responsible actors.
