FDA plans oversight changes after critical tobacco report – JP

The report also recommended the FDA utilize its tobacco advisory committee, improve staff recruitment and work with Congress on securing user fees from vaping manufacturers. 

The FDA solicited twin evaluations of its tobacco and food programs in July, after months of backlash against the agency’s response to e-cigarette reviews and the infant formula shortage.

Lawmakers have been critical of both industry tactics and the FDA response. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., earlier this month introduced a bill aiming to eliminate tax deductions for e-cigarette and tobacco ads.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., has been an outspoken critic of the FDA’s failure to meet its deadlines on e-cigarette reviews. Most recently, the FDA signaled it could wrap up applications by June, nearly two years after a court-ordered deadline of September 2021.

Vaping companies were initially instructed to apply for FDA marketing authorizations by September 2020. But store shelves are currently awash in illegal products after the FDA was bogged down by the review workload.