Several Vuse products have been added to the list of premarket tobacco product marketing granted orders by the FDA on May 12.
The products authorized are the Vuse Vibe and Vuse Ciro ranges, including the respective power units and Original flavor refill pods. These Vuse products join their sibling, the Vuse Solo, as one of the very select few products to have been granted this authorization.
The pods authorized consist of the Vibe Tank Original 3.0% and the Ciro Cartridge Original 1.5% tobacco-flavored units.
At current, the FDA has not yet made a decision regarding Vuse’s most popular device, the Vuse Alto.
It is important to note that these PMTA marketing authorizations are not an FDA approval, as they only permit the marketing rights to the products listed. This marketing permission is also only relegated to the United States.
As with the other authorized products, the FDA deemed this authorization on the basis of tobacco harm reduction potential. The news release by the FDA stated that these products, after considerable chemical testing, demonstrated less harmful effects when compared to traditional cigarette smoking.
As mentioned, the list of the PMTA authorized products is small, but growing monthly. Currently, the list features only the NJOY ACE and a number of Logic Technology’s brands such as Logic Vapeleaf, Logic Power, and Logic Pro.
While the list of authorized products grows slowly, there is a significant caveat pro-vaping advocates need to acknowledge – only non-flavored products are being authorized. This has resulted in countless denials of more popular products that could have greater potential for harm reduction if authorized.
Another distinction to note is the financial backing many of these authorized products possess. Vuse is a brand owned by British American Tobacco, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world.
There has always been large speculation that financial backing by big tobacco has been a deciding factor for the PMTA process. The continued authorization of only products backed by big tobacco only bolsters this belief.
US District Court Judge Paul Grimm recently ordered a status report regarding the PMTA process to the FDA. This came as a result of tens of thousands of applications going unanswered still. It is very likely this order has played a role in the recent uptake of FDA authorizations seen.
In Summary
The FDA has approved yet another set of Vuse products. The Vuse Vibe and Vuse Ciro, along with their tobacco-flavored pods, now join the Vuse Solo and products from NJOY and Logic as the only products with marketing authorization. While there is some benefit to having the FDA acknowledge the harm reduction potential of these products, progress for vaping as a whole remains incredibly slow. As of current, there have been no non-tobacco flavored pods to be authorized, despite their massive importance to the vaping landscape.
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