On January 25th, British American Tobacco announced in a statement that its subsidiary, Reynolds American Inc. (Reynolds), will appeal the marketing ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its Vuse Vibe Tank menthol 3.0% and Vuse Ciro Cartridge menthol 1.5%.
On January 24th, the FDA rejected marketing applications for two menthol additives used in the Vuse Vibe and Vuse Ciro e-cigarettes, which are sold in the United States by Reynolds, a subsidiary of BAT.
The company stated, "Reynolds intends to immediately seek a suspension of enforcement and will pursue other appropriate avenues to continue providing innovative products to adult nicotine consumers over the age of 21 without interruption.
We still have full confidence in the quality of all Reynolds products, and we believe that the FDA has sufficient evidence to determine whether the marketing of these products is appropriate to protect public health.
Anti-smoking activists have contested claims that mint-flavored e-cigarettes are not attractive to underage consumers. The chair of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Matthew Myers, responded with a statement saying, "Existing evidence shows that non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, including mint-flavored e-cigarettes, pose known substantial risks in terms of attractiveness, uptake, and use among young people. In contrast, data shows that tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes have a different level of appeal among young people and, therefore, do not pose an equal level of risk.
Morgan Stanley has stated that it expects the rejected products during BAT's appeal to remain on the US market with minimal impact on the company's operations. The bank wrote in an investor note that "in the long-term, if this refusal reflects broader efforts by the FDA to ban menthol e-cigarettes, BAT's US cigarette business may benefit from its menthol blend as it could deter some smokers from quitting or switching to lower-risk products." According to Morgan Stanley, Reynolds' Newport brand accounts for around 40% of BAT's US cigarette sales.
On January 24, the FDA’s refusal to approve Vuse’s additional flavor highlight its longstanding resistance to approve menthol-flavored e-cigarettes. So far, the agency has only approved tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.
The FDA has designated the pre-market tobacco product application and modified risk tobacco product application to IQOS' updated menthol product. This could ultimately make FiMo International's heat-not-burn product one of the few on the market as a menthol reduced-risk alternative.
FDA Issues Marketing Denial Orders for Two Vuse Products
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