Dive Brief:
- Njoy, an e-cigarette company owned by tobacco giant Altria, has been granted marketing orders for four menthol-flavored vaping products, the department announced on Friday. These are the first menthol e-cigarette products approved for sale in the U.S.
- The approved products — The Ace Pod Menthol 2.4%, Ace Pod Menthol 5%, Daily Menthol 4.5% and Daily Extra Menthol 6% — were first submitted for review in March 2020, Altria said in a June 21 press release. The first two are pods for the Njoy Ace while the latter two are disposable.
- Approval of these pods comes less than two months after the federal government once again delayed a potential menthol flavor ban for tobacco products that was first proposed in 2013, with no solid timeline for revisiting the ban.
Dive Insight:
The FDA’s approval of Njoy’s menthol-flavored e-cigarette products could signal that the government may soon nix that menthol ban entirely. With tobacco products being the largest inside-sales category for c-stores in 2022 according to Statista and menthols making up nearly a third of U.S. tobacco sales according to Circana data, this would be welcome news in the c-store industry.
The FDA has previously focused on flavored vaping products as potentially dangerous because they could attract underage smokers. The administration addressed this concern in its decision.
“Based upon our rigorous scientific review, in this instance, the strength of evidence of benefits to adult smokers from completely switching to a less harmful product was sufficient to outweigh the risks to youth," said Matthew Farrelly, director of the Office of Science in the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
Njoy is currently the third-largest seller of reusable vapes, behind Vuse and Juul, according to data from Goldman Sachs. The company is looking to grow its portfolio of U.S. products further, having submitted applications in May for its new Ace 2.0 e-cigarette device as well as watermelon and blueberry vaping pods for that device. It’s also expanding the number of stores carrying its products, having distribution to about 80,000 stores in the first quarter and targeting 100,000 total by the end of 2024.
There are now 27 vaping products approved for sale in the U.S. Retailers can check which tobacco items are approved for sale via the FDA’s new searchable database.
Marketing approval for these items could be revoked “if the agency determines that continued marketing is no longer appropriate for the protection of the public health, including if there is a notable increase in use of the products among youth or former smokers, or a decrease in the number of current smokers who completely switch to the products,” according to the FDA’s announcement.
