According to a report from the Associated Press on October 10th, the Supreme Court of the United States has rejected an appeal against the recent refusal by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve various e-cigarette applications for the market.
The case stems from the FDA’s decision in 2021 to reject Avail Vapor’s request for all fruit and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes. The company alleges that the FDA intentionally complicated the application process, resulting in a significant number of new product submissions being denied.
The company claims that the FDA failed to inform them of a policy change, which only allows the inclusion of ongoing research data in applications, comparing the effectiveness of various flavors of products to tobacco flavor products as aids for adult smoking cessation.
The FDA is intensifying its efforts to regulate flavored e-cigarettes, following the court’s dismissal of the lawsuit.
On May 12th, the FDA issued cease and desist orders to 10 companies for a total of around 6500 e-cigarette liquid and e-cigarette products. The FDA stated that these companies failed to provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that “allowing the sale of these products is appropriate for the protection of public health.
The list of rejected products includes e-cigarettes with flavors such as mint, strawberry cheesecake, and cool mint. The FDA conducted a study on the usage of e-cigarettes among middle school and high school students, revealing that out of the students using these devices, 84.9% preferred non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes.
