FDA Revokes Marketing Denial Order for JUUL E-cigarettes

Editor's note: On June 6, local time, the US FDA announced the voluntary withdrawal of the Marketing Denial Order (MDO) for JUUL, allowing the application to return to pending status. This is reportedly the first time the FDA has voluntarily withdrawn a Marketing Denial Order (MDO).

On June 6th, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States released a press release announcing updates on its review of the Premarket Tobacco Product Applications (PMTAs) submitted by JUUL Labs, Inc.

On June 23, 2022, the FDA issued Marketing Denial Orders (MDOs) for all products of JUUL Labs, Inc. that were being sold in the United States at the time. The FDA determined that these applications lacked sufficient evidence regarding the toxic characteristics of the products, and failed to demonstrate that the marketing of the products met the public health standards required by law. When announcing the issuance of the MDOs, the FDA stated that insufficient and conflicting data on genotoxicity and potential harmful chemicals leaching from the company's proprietary pods prevented the agency from completing a comprehensive toxicological review of the products.

On July 5, 2022, the FDA administratively suspended MDOs (medical device orders) after determining that certain scientific issues required additional review. Since then, the FDA has conducted additional reviews and substantial reviews in multiple areas, including toxicology, engineering, social sciences, and clinical pharmacology.

Meanwhile, since the administrative pause of MDOs in 2022, the FDA has gained more experience in various scientific issues related to e-cigarette products and has seen new litigation outcomes in MDOs cases involving other manufacturers' e-cigarette products. Some of these court rulings have established new precedents and provided information for the FDA's product review methods to uphold its commitment to making appropriate final decisions based on science and law.

Today, on June 6th, the FDA revoked the MDOs issued to JUUL Labs, Inc. in June 2022. This action was partly due to new legal precedents and FDA's review of information provided by the applicant. Revoking the MDOs is neither an authorization nor a denial, and does not indicate whether the application is likely to be authorized or denied. Revoking the MDOs returns the application to a pending status for substantive review by the FDA. FDA regulations severely limit the information the agency can disclose about pending applications.

Once accepted and filed by the FDA, applications under review will ultimately receive either a sale permit or a sale rejection order. Additional steps may be taken temporarily during any application review, as stated on the FDA website.

The FDA's ongoing review does not change the fact that, according to the law, all e-cigarette products, including those made by JUUL, must obtain FDA authorization to legally market them.