FDA Considers Regulating Nicotine in Cigarettes

Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, on Friday announced plans to delay for years a requirement that makers of cigars and e-cigarettes get agency approval for any products marketed after February 2007.

Gottlieb, in a speech to FDA employees, also said the agency plans to explore regulating the level of nicotine in conventional cigarettes — in an effort to reduce it so that the products are no longer addictive.

Other e-cigarette regulations, such as a ban on the sale of the devices to minors, will remain in place.

The moves came amid furious lobbying by the e-cigarette industry to roll back FDA regulations, issued last year, that require companies to submit to a rigorous approval process for products marketed after Feb. 15, 2007. That date meant that nearly all the e-cig products sold today would be required to go through the review, industry officials said.

Some congressional Republicans have also been pressing for a change in the approval requirement.

The approval requirement was part of the so-called “deeming rule,” in which the agency decided that e-cigarettes would be subject to the same rules as conventional cigarettes. The rule gave manufacturers about two years — until sometime in 2018 — to get FDA approval for their products or risk having them pulled off the market.