Home Politics America Vaping industry is given a three-month reprieve by the FDA

Vaping industry is given a three-month reprieve by the FDA

Last Monday e-cigarette manufacturers received some good news, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced that it is pushing the date for them to start the registration process of their products, by three months.

Diane Caruana

May 3, 2017

The dreaded June 30 deadline has now been moved back by three months, “and hopefully more is to come,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association last Monday. Earlier that day, also on the 1st of May, Conley had just announced the tragic news about the Cole-Bishop Amendment not making it through Congress.

“This extension will allow new leadership at the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services additional time to more fully consider issues raised by the final rule that are now the subject of multiple lawsuits in federal court.” U.S. Food and Drug Administartion

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is announcing information about the outstanding compliance deadlines related to the May 2016 final rule that extended the agency’s authority to additional tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco, among others…”

A registration process afforded only by Big Tobacco

The unreasonable licensing fees imposed by the FDA can only be afforded by the main players in the industry, the same big tobacco companies who still produce and sell the cigarettes that are responsible for the deaths of millions.

Many e-cigarette manufacturers were preparing to shut their doors. The unreasonable licensing fees imposed by the FDA can only be afforded by the main players in the industry, the big tobacco companies, hence the same companies who still produce and sell the cigarettes that are responsible for the deaths of millions. While the small vape businesses, offering a safer alternative, where being thrown in the same deep end with them.

Totally Wicked is amongst these businesses. “The FDA may want Americans to continue smoking; we do not”, stated the spokesperson for Totally Wicked last November. “We intend to offer all our products at even more affordable prices, ensuring that when the FDA does shut us down, as many people as possible will have benefitted from a product that Public Health England classifies as a minimum of 95% safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.”

The dark clouds over the vaping industry seem to be shifting

Other deadlines which are part of the FDA’s rule deeming rule have also been delayed three months, but the registration deadline was the closest. In the meantime, vapers are hopeful that if Scott Gottlieb is confirmed as the New FDA commissioner, the direction of the agency will be changed. Another sliver of hope is Rep. Duncan Hunter’s bill. The bill which was introduced last week, would exempt vaping devices from the FDA’s regulations, as it proposes regulating the products as NRTs for harm reduction purposes, rather than as the deadly cigarettes which they are not.