FDA goes back to the drawing board after warnings legal battle abandoned

The US government has abandoned its attempts to require cigarette manufacturers to include on their products the big graphic warnings designed by the Food and Drug Administration, according to a number of news reports.

The FDA introduced its graphic warning requirement in 2011, but some of the country’s cigarette manufacturers successfully sued on the grounds that the warnings violated the companies’ First Amendment rights.

The FDA said yesterday that it would look into new rules consistent with the Tobacco Control Act, the 2009 law that requires the agency to find ways to reduce the annual death toll attributed to tobacco use.

But it did not indicate how long it might take to introduce new warnings.