Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released a searchable database of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, that are approved for sale, according to a Thursday announcement.
- The database will be updated monthly with items that are newly approved for marketing as well as older products that have already gotten the go-ahead from the FDA.
- This announcement comes after the FDA has stepped up warnings and in some cases issued fines on retailers and websites selling unapproved products. As of the end of February, the department had sent more than 440 warning letters to and filed 100 fines against retailers for the sale of unauthorized e-cigarettes.
Dive Insight:
As the FDA increasingly cracks down on unapproved products and federal lawmakers turn their attention on--to illegal vapes, this database should give retailers an added level of clarity when making merchandising decisions.
NACS had previously noted the lack of an easy way for retailers to check product legality. This opinion was shared by an independent review of parts of the FDA’s tobacco program, which repeatedly noted the organization needed to be more transparent.
“We have asked FDA numerous times for complete information about what can — and cannot — be sold in stores and they have declined to provide it,” Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic initiatives, told the New York Times earlier this year.
The database currently has information on more than 17,000 products. Each entry includes the product name, company that produces it, category, sub-category, the authority permitting its sale in the U.S. and the date the FDA took action on it.
It also links to regulatory and scientific documents associated with that product.
“We hope that this database will be an asset to stakeholders — including retailers — that will be used to help facilitate compliance with the law,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
